Fenway Park Will Host Round of ECAC Playoffs

When Harvard takes on UMass this Friday in the opening round of the ECAC Playoffs, it will be a move up to the big time--at least as far as the site for the game is concerned--as the ECAC Selection Committee announced yesterday that the first two days of the three-day District I baseball playoffs will be held at Fenway Park, home of the American League's Red Sox.

On Friday, the first day of action at Fenway, Harvard will lay its 32-3 record on the line against Yankee Conference champion UMass, which has an impressive 21-7-1 record of its own.

On Saturday there will be three games at Fenway, and the playoff procedure will become more complicated. At 10 a.m. the losers of the opening day will meet, and the team that drops this contest will be automatically eliminated. At 1 p.m. Friday's winners face off. At 4 p.m. the winner of the 10 a.m. game and the loser of the 1 p.m. game will meet to determine who will advance to the finals.

Sunday the playoff action moves to Soldiers Field at Harvard. There, the winner of the 1 p.m. Saturday game which will have won two games without a loss, and the winner of the 4 p.m. Saturday game will meet to determine the ECAC District I champion. The first team to win three games wins the District I title and moves on to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. where it will meet the District 8 titlist (West Coast).

Because of exams Harvard will be at a distinct disadvantage in the playoff action. Three Harvard players will miss the Friday game because of finals and seven will miss the Saturday contests.

The problem of examinations becomes more acute when the ECAC Playoff rules are taken into account. Each team is allowed a roster of 21 players, which cannot be changed during the course of the playoffs. Harvard, with as many as seven players scheduled to miss one or more games, may have to play with as few as 14 people in the Crimson's most important contests of the season.