Baseball Team Scores In Tenth to Beat B.U.

Pete Bernhard scored from third base on a sacrifice fly by Pete Varney in the tenth inning to give the varsity baseball squad a 5-4 victory over Boston University yesterday at Soldiers Field.

The win evened Harvard's season record at 3-3 and made the Crimson team the top contender for the Greater Boston League title. "This game was a really big win because I thought B.U. would be the toughest challenger in the GBL," coach Loyal Park said.

Captain John Ignacio and junior Neil Hurley led the Crimson's thirteen hit attack with three hits apiece. Pitching superbly in relief, sophomore J.C. Nickens came on with the bases loaded in the ninth and saved the game.

Starting pitcher Bob Dorwart held B.U. in check for eight innings, allowing only five hits. One of those hits, however, was a third-inning homer by Reggie Rucker with two men aboard that gave the Terriers an early 3-0 lead.

Harvard did not get on the score board until the bottom half of the fourth. Dan DeMichele walked and advanced to third on the first of Ignacio's three doubles. Bill Kelly beat out a grounder to first that allowed DeMichele to score.

In the fifth, Hurley laid a perfect bunt down the third base line. Varney drove him in with a tremendous triple into left field. Hurley led off the seventh inning with a double and scored on DeMichele's single to tie the game, 3-3.

Bernhard smashed a solo home run into right field in the eighth that appeared to wrap up the game for the Crimson. But Dorwart tired in the ninth and allowed the tieing run to score on singles by the Terriers' Bob Leverone, Greg Stone, and Tim Masick.

Nickens entered with one out, the bases loaded, and the heart of the B.U. batting order on deck. He proceeded to strike out the next two batters on eight pitches.

Singles by Bernhard, Hurley, and DeMichele loaded the bases for the Crimson in the tenth with only one out. Varney went to a 3-2 count before lofting a high fly ball that the wind carried into deep center. Bernhard's slide beat the throw to the plate.

The thirteen hit barrage of Crimson batters. Dorwart's eight innings of strong pitching, and Nickens fine effort, were all encouraging to coach Park. Less encouraging were the facts that Harvard stranded fifteen base runners and showed extremely poor judgment in running out extra base hits and sacrifice flies.