Lacrosse Squads Spring Into Action... While Batsmen break it Open in Calif.

RIVERSIDE, Calif.--Playing in the nation's best mid-season tournament, against some of the nation's best teams--all of whom had played games already this year--the Harvard baseball team opened its season with a 3-4 showing at last week's Riverside Baseball Invitational.

The Crimson looked good, very good, for a squad in its first week of outdoor baseball. The three wins included a 13-6 demolition of 14th-ranked Missouri, which entered the game with a 22-7 record.

Along with Harvard, Missouri and host U.C. Riverside, the tournament boasted San Diego State--rated No. 1 in the country midway through last year--and three Pac-10 teams: Arizona State, UCLA, and tournament champion Oregon State.

"We came out here with preconceptions about these teams," said junior pitcher Cecil Cox. We know we could play with anybody in this tournament."

"I'm not trying to take anything away from the other teams. It's just a tribute to the way our program is run," Cox added.

Harvard would "be a real solid hall club anywhere in the country," said UCLA coach Gary Adams. He should know, because teams now in his conference, the Pac-10, have won 14 of the last 20 College World Series. In contrast, only one university from the northeast ever captured a College World Series In contract, only one university from the northeast ever captured a Collage Would Series title (Holy Cross.1952)

Fox Harvard, the seven-team, round robin tournament offered a change from the usual Spring Break trip to Florida. Instead of playing a couple of college games, and facing Red Sox minor leaguers, the Crimson got a chance to square off against the best in college baseball.

"You hear about these teams," said Coach Alex Nahigian. "You like to take a look at them. You like to see how good they are."

For the refugees from the Snow Belt, just playing and coaching against these teams was a thrill.

Being competitive made it even better.

Day in and day out, junior second baseman Bob Kay turned in the best performance, going 14-for-33 (.424) and stealing six bases. Classmate Paul Vallone, batting ninth, quietly went 7-for-16 (.438). In general, though, the hitting was inconsistent.

"A few games we didn't hit," said sophomore catcher Jim DePalo. "Our pitching has been surprising. Being in these games against these great teams is going to be good for us down the road."

MONDAY

Harvard 24, Air Force 1--On a cloudy morning, Harvard was anything but cold. The batsmen hammered five home runs in their season opener, while starter Charlie Marchese scattered seven hits and fanned six in nine beautiful innings of work.

Mickey Maspons and Scott Vierra smashed back-to-back homers in the third. After Elliott Rivera's round-tripper made it 8-1 in the top of the fifth. Falcon pitcher Roch Rhinchart took out his frustration by beaning Tony Decease on the very next pitch. Maspons stepped to the plate and boomed his second straight homer, a 400 ft., monster, to dead center.

Harvard sent 16 men to the plate in an 11-run seventh inning. On the game, all nine starters tallied at least one hit, three subs did the same, and 10 different Crimson runners scored. Rivera and Maspons tied the tournament and Harvard records for runs scored in a game (five), and Maspons and Vierra each notched five RBI.

Right fielder Chris McAndrews, who lined the ball straight at Falcon fielders in his first five at-bats, didn't take any risks on his sixth. He pulled his fourth career home run straight down the left-field line.

"We've always been not the first day out, but I didn't expect anything like that," said Maspons, who became the 22nd player to tie the Crimson record for homers in a game.

Harvard 8, U.C. Riverside 6--Junior Doug Sutton's pitching stole the show Monday night, but only after his teammates stole the bases. Kay and McAndrews nabbed two bases apiece, and designated hitter DePalo, who went four-for-five, stole another. Three of those steal set up Harvard runs, and the Crimson built an 8-4 lead in the first six innings.

Highlander Paul Moralez halved the margin with his second homer of the game, a two-run shot with two out in the bottom of the seventh. A single later, as the tying run stood at the plate, Sutton strolled out to the mound in relief of Mike Press.

Sutton fanned the first better he faced to end the inning. In the eighth Sutton gave up a leadoff single and walked the tying run aboard. Unfazed, the junior right-hander struck out two straights before ending the inning on a fielder's choice.

In the ninth, Sutton struck out the side.

Overall, Sutton pitched to 10 batters and struck out six. The money pitch: a slider that had Riverside batters swinging at air.

"I was throwing it as fast as my fastball," Sutton said. "I was really pumped." He had reason to be. After two years of arm problems, he finally seemed healthy...relatively.

"I strained a muscle in my shoulder" this winter, he said. "It's not 100 percent. It's about 90, 95."

TUESDAY

San Diego State, Harvard 4--All-tournament hurler Mike Erb fooled everyone but Kay, who stroked three of Harvard's six hits, including a fifth-inning homer. Kay also picked up two more stolen bases, giving him a three-game total of four, already a quarter of his 1984 team-high of 16.

First baseman Chris Schindler was the only other Crimson player who hit anything productive with a bat, Schindler's fourth-inning triple scored Maspons and Vierra to give Harvard a 3-1 lead over last year's tournament champion.

Starter Jeff Muscleman couldn't hold the lead for long, as the Azaleas batted around in the fourth with the help of four walks. The four-run innings game SDSU a 5-3 edge.

Kay's dinger made it 5-4, but Erb held Harvard hitless for the final 19 outs. Meanwhile, Muscleman suffered through his worst control in more than two years.

Forced to work five innings-plus because of the Crimson's overer tended pitching staff, he walked 10 while striking out only one By the time Nahigian could afford to go to his bullpen, the Aztecs held a 7-3 lead.

WEDNESDAY

Arizona State 5, Harvard 3--By all rights, the Crimson should have beaten the Sundevils, who have won five national championships and have the best record in baseball over the past 13 seasons. Sophomore Jim Chenevey pitched an extraordinary game, only to watch his teammates strand 14--yes, 14--runners and go without a single extra-base hit.

Facing a lineup with three pre-season All-Americans, Chenevey fanned seven in as many innings, fooling the batters with breaking balls.

"He pitched extremely well," said Nahigian after the game. And the stranded runners? "Sometimes you bring them in, and sometimes you don't."

FRIDAY

Oregon State 13, Harvard 10--For a while, it looked like the Crimson would finally get blown out. The eventual tournaments champion Beavers built and Landslide through three and a half innings. To make matters worse rains Wednesday night and Thursday morning forced the tournament to shorten all to games seven innings with a two and a half-hour time limit.

But Harvard sent 13 men to the plate in a seven run fourth inning and suddenly OSU clung to a one-run margin. The Beavers soon forged ahead again with five more runs, and the Crimson's three run rally in the bottom of the sixth wasn't enough. The umpires enforced the time limit to end the game an inning early.

UCLA 6 Harvard 4--Cox pitched well through six innings homer seesaw struggle. The Crimson converted Kay's lead-off triple into a 1-0 lead and Maspons's second inning homer made at 2-1 Harvard. But the Bruins tied it again in the third, an than took advantage of three walks and an to tally two runs in a hitless fourth inning.

Harvard knotted the game with runs in the fifth and the sixth, but the Crimson couldn't rebound after reliever Sutton yielded two run in the top of the seventh.

SATURDAY

Harvard 13, Missouri 6--The Crimson stole seven bases and took advantage of six Tiger errors en route to a convincing victory in the final game of the tournament. Musselman, working in relief of Presz, struck out seven and yielded just two hits in five innings to record the win

Harvard knotted the game with runs in the fifth and the sixth, but the Crimson couldn't rebound after reliever Sutton yielded two run in the top of the seventh.

SATURDAY

Harvard 13, Missouri 6--The Crimson stole seven bases and took advantage of six Tiger errors en route to a convincing victory in the final game of the tournament. Musselman, working in relief of Presz, struck out seven and yielded just two hits in five innings to record the win