Lincoln Pitches One-Hitter As Harvard Downs Tufts

Behind the one-hit mastery of sophomore Bob Lincoln, Harvard stopped Tufts 2-0 Thursday in Medford. Only a clean single by the Jumbos' Hank Fuller in the fifth inning stood between Lincoln and a no-hitter.

Unfortunately, the Crimson batters seem to be putting on a no-hit performance of their own. They managed only three hits against Tufts' Ron McRobbie, for a grand total of six in the last two games.

But with Lincoln on the mound, a few were good enough. In the sixth, Jeff Grate walked and Dan Hootstein, who seems to drool when there are men on base, knocked him in with a double to left field. Bob Welz scored the Crimson's other run in the seventh when he walked, took second on a sacrifice, and scored when McRobbie blew a pickoff attempt.

Lincoln, in winning his first game of the year against two losses, walked only one man and struck out two. The righthander had to wait a day to get his chance for glory -- the game, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed because of rain.

Today the Crimson will play Cornell in Ithaca. Jim McCandlish will be on the mound for Harvard, trying to bounce back from his 3-0 loss to Boston College on Tuesday. The defeat brought McCandlish's record to 1-2, but his ERA remains a credible 2.39.

The lineup behind him will probably be the same as always, with one possible exception. In center field, George Neville is hitting only .224, and on the bench is sophomore Carter Lord. If Neville doesn't start to hit, it's a good bet that Coach Norm Shepard will replace him with the rangy Lord, who is strong, fast, and has hit some awesome fly balls in a couple of recent pinch hitting assignments. If Lord can start finding the alleys with his hits instead of the left fielder's glove, he could give the Crimson some sorely-needed extra-base hits.

Cornell has a 6-4 record, 1-1 in the EIBL, but the team has, like Harvard, been plagued by weak hitting.