Kay's Little Finger Poses a Big Problem

Junior second baseman Bob Kay may be out of the line-up for awhile because of a fractured pinky on his left hand.

Kay, who injured his finger while diving into second base Sunday against Penn, said last night that xrays taken yesterday showed a fracture.

Kay is the team's second leading hitter with a 350 average. He also has 13 steals, a team-high eight sacrifices and 18 RBI. He bats second.

Senior T.J. Andre replaced him at second base Sunday.

* * *

Seniors Jay McNamara and Chris Schindler are the surpises of the year on the 16-8 Harvard baseball team.

McNamara, who entered the year with 12 hits and one homer in 57 college at-bats, is now tied for the team home run lead (four).

McNamara got his chance when left fielder Scott Vierra moved to third base 12 games ago. Since then, McNamara has played in nine games, batted 400 and notched 16 RBI.

Schindler was a backup outfielder as a freshman and a backup first baseman since then. Last year he made his first college pitching appearance, when he earned a save for three innings of work at MIT.

Schindler got his chance this year when sore arms plagued the Harvard staff. In five appearances and 11 1/3 innings, he has allowed just one run on six hits. Even more impressive for a reliever, he has walked only one batter.

Needless to say, he leads the staff in ERA (.794).

* * *

Starter Jeff Musselman has thrown a complete game no-hitter (Penn), two-hitter (Princeton) and three-hitter (Tufts) while holding opponents to two earned runs in 26 innings of Eastern baseball. His ERA is 3.00, because he yielded 10 earned runs in as many innings at the Riverside (Calif.) Baseball invitational in March.

Musselma's most impressive state: 44 Strikeouts in his last 31 innings.

Walk around the clock: Chris McAndrews has walked 12 times in his last five games. He had earned only eight bases on balls in his first 19 games...Jim DePalo leads the squad in free passes, with 27 in the team's 24 games. He has an incredible 491 on-base percentage. He might make a better leadoff batter than Tony Dicresare, who leads the team in strikeouts with 15. DePalo does have 17 RBI, but he isn't hitting for power this year, with only two doubles and three homers. DiCesare has almost as many RBI (14), one more double and one less home run. Depalo is better base stealer as well.

* * *

Captain Eiliott Rivera has been slumping. He hasn't had a multiplehit outing in 13 games. Despite this he's still hitting .329, with a share of the Crimson home run lead and a team-leading 25 RBI in 24 games.

Rivera's for home runs came in 79 at-bats, more than three came as many as McNamara's 25. Still, Rivera has already become one of the leading tater mashers I Harvard History with 10fgames left in the season the Utica N.Y. native has 16 career homers, just five shy of Don Allard '83's career-record 21.

Senior Scoot Vierra is enjoying his best year ever in a Harvard uniform. Vierra is hitting .347, 48 points better than his sophomore season and 79m points better than last year.

* * *

Senior designated hitter/catcher Mickey Maspons leads the team in batting (.361) and power (six doubles, a triple and three home runs). After eight of 18 Eastern League games, Maspons is set to repeat as league batting champion. Last season Maspons hit .491 in league games and won the title by 52 points. This year he's hitting .500 (12 of 12). Should repeat, Maspons would become the Crimson's first two-time batting champ since Tony Lupien '39.

* * *

History is on their side dept.: Tomorrow's 3 p.m. Soldiers Field game against B.C. will be the 3000th contest in Harvard baseball history (not all against college teams). Since 1865, the Crimson has an 1887-1084-28 record, for a .634 wining percentage. Harvard's 2500th collegiate game was the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader with Penn, a 9-2 Crimson victory. Harvard is 1592-890-20 against other colleges, a winning percentage of .640.

Numerology dept.: Harvard has won 13 Eastern League titles, four more than second-place Dartmouth. Princeton, the current league leader, hasn't won since 1953. But Harvard has never won the title in a year ending in 5. EIBL STANDINGS Team  W  L  Pct  GB Princeton  11  3  .786  -- Navy  10  4  .714  1 HARVARD  5  3  .625  3 Brown  7  5  .583  3 Army  5  5  .500  4 Cornell  5  5  .500  4 Columbia  7  9  .438  5 Penn  7  9  .438  5 Yale  2  10  .167  8 Dartmouth  1  7  .125  7