Crimson Batmen Put MIT On Ice, 9-2

As a numbing wind swept in off the Charles across the MIT baseball diamond and buffeted against the big, red brick Heinz warehouse across the street, the Engineers appeared to be devising 57 ways to lose yesterday's ball game to Harvard.

MIT didn't quite come up with all 57 varieties, but the squad did squander 11 hits and commit seven errors to let Harvard roll to a 9-2 victory and the coveted Cambridge championship. The Crimson, meanwhile, parlayed eight hits and numerous walks, along with a nearly flawless defense, to run off with the three and a half hour Cantabridgian free-athon.

"Defense is what's going to win ball games," coach Loyal Park pointed out in his inimitable fashion during the contest, and Harvard's infield came up with a couple of defensive gems from pitcher Tommy Pura and second baseman Jimmy Thomas in the sixth, and a nifty bases loaded double play to get Pura out of a jam in the seventh.

Pura, making his first mound appearance since spring vacation, when he pitched seven two-hit innings against Morehouse College, went seven yesterday, and despite allowing ten hits was only in trouble in the sixth and seventh. A triple by MIT's third pitcher, John Cavolowski, in the sixth accounted for the Engineers' two runs, and walk and two hits with none out in the seventh looked to spell more trouble.

But Pura got cleanup hitter Herb Kummer to chop one back to the mound. He flipped to substitute catcher Kevin Carr, who stepped on home for one out and fired to first for the second. Dan Sundberg followed by grounding out to third baseman Fran Cronin, and MIT was once again frustrated.

The Harvard batsmen, on the other hand, got a good deal of mileage out of their eight hits. The Crimson struck in the middle innings, getting three runs in the third, three in the fourth, one in the fifth, on a booming homer that DH Don Driscoll balsted out into the vast MIT tundra and finally two more in the sixth.

Leigh Hogan doubled in the first run in the third after walks to Thomas and Ed Durso. The second marker crossed the plate on Leon Goetx's double play ball and Barry Cronin singled home the third score. A Durso triple in the fourth, bringing the score to 4-0, sent MIT starter Dave Yauch to the showers.

Yauch's relief, Don Proper, proceeded to walk Hogan and give up a two-RBI single to Joe Sciolla before getting out of the inning. He was replaced by Cavolowski in the fifth.

In the sixth, after Thomas and Durso singled and pulled off a double steal, Mike Dzeikan committed one of him squad's seven errors on a Sciolla grounder and an eighth run was across the plate. After another double steal, this time by Duroso and Sciolla, and a sacrifice fly by Goetz, the Crimson had upped its total to 9-0.

In the meantime, the Engineers could not capitalize on what they could get from Harvard's hard-throwing lefty from Salinas, California, until the sixth. Forgotten senior receiver Terry Shlimbaum took over for the final two innings and held MIT in check to insure the victory.

The main win boosted Harvard's Greater Boston League record to 3-1, its Northern slate to 5-2 and overall record (including spring vacation games) to 17-2. Milt Holt should get the nod to start Friday's Eastern League contest with Yale (Harvard is 2-1 here).