Nine Face Inept Bengals In Battle of Weak Hitters

The fellow who wept because he had no shoes until he met the man who had no feet probably felt a little like the Harvard baseball team does today: our hitting may be pretty weak, but Princeton -- hoo, boy.

The Tigers' top batsman (if he can be dignified with the name) is hitting all of .229, and only two of his teammates are over .200. Surprisingly, many of the players from the team that finished second in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League last year are back this season, but they're all suddenly impotent at the plate.

Coach Norm Shepard can't be feeling very happy about his Harvard attack, not when the team managed only three hits against Brown on Wednesday. The only way the Crimson got its five runs was with the assistance of the Brown starter, who walked ten grateful batters.

The batting averages remain respectable -- Jeff Grate continues to lend the team, hitting .383 -- but the runs just haven't been coming. The loss to Brown gives the team a 9-5 record, including three losses in four EIBL contests.

Lefthander Jim McCandlish will start against Princeton in Splinter Stadium today. His opponent will be Tiger lefthander Tom Scott, who has won two games, lost three, and carries a quite respectable 2.59 ERA.

Through yesterday's Brown game, Scott, Graham Marcott, and the rest of an effective pitching staff has carried the Tigers to a 6-9-1 record. Princeton is 1-2 in the EIBL with a win over Cornell and defeats at the hands of Dartmouth and Columbia.

It's to be hoped that the dormant Harvard hitters revive today against Scott. If they don't, nightfall may find the two teams still out there, with a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard and a lot of spectators asleep in the stands.