Harvard Will Meet UMass Nine For District Title This Weekend

Harvard will meet UMass for the NCAA District 1 baseball championship in a three-game series next Sunday and Monday.

The teams will play a doubleheader Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. If neither team wins both games, the rubber march will be played Monday at 2:30 p.m. All three games will be played at Harvard and each will be a full nine-inning comest.

"We won the loss of the coin over the weekend," Harvard coach Loyal Park said yesterday. "To be playing at home should give the boys a lift. Yet the credit has to go to my wife for our luck in this thing. She's been praying for the team for weeks and it's finally paid off."

With the tournament coming up this weekend, coach Park decided to cancel all remaining Harvard games. A rained-out May 15 game with Holy Cross which was rescheduled for this week consequently will not be played.

The Crimson ended its regular season with a 25-6 record. In addition, the team won both the Eastern Conference and the Greater Boston League titles, becoming the second Harvard team in history to do so.

"A sportswriter called me last night," Park said, "and our 48 wins over the past two years is the best Harvard two year win-total since the 1892-93 teams won 48 also. And they played more games in those days."

Park said that Bill Kelly will pitch the first game against the Redmen but declined comment on the rotation for the remaining games. "We'll see in the next couple of days who'll be ready." Park said. "Then I'll make a decision."

The Crimson's pitching and power should be enough to catapult it past the Redmen into the national tournament in Omaha, yet any further advances toward the championship will be difficult. The last Eastern representative to win the national title was Holy Cross and that was in 1952.

The major roadblocks for Harvard are depth and game experience. Although the Crimson can field twelve plays who could start for any team, Harvard lacks the overall bench strength both in the bullpen and in the reserves to carry the team through the eight-team double-elimination tournament.

Powerhouses

The perennial college baseball power houses, such as Southern California and Texas, usually begin their seasons in March in warm climates, and often play as many as 45 games before the national tournament.

These teams have the time to develop the second line players, which a team like Harvard cannot afford to do playing only half as many games.