Baseball Fields Team With Depth, Experience

Coming off a less than satisfactory year in which it went 12-22-1, the Harvard men's baseball team is looking to improve this year.

Losing only three seniors and aided by a strong recruting class, the Crimson appears to be in position to make a run at the Ivy League title.

Consistency plagued the Crimson last year.

"We would play great one game, and then horribly the next." sophomore Mike Hochanadel said.

Ironically, this year consistency seems to be the Crimson's strongest point.

"You don't want to go out on a limb and be overly enthusiastic, but this is the most depth I've seen since I've been here," Berhard said. "The freshman are unreal, and we have a ton of returning players."

The team is led by senior captain Bo Berhard, who will be starting at second base. He is followed by a deep Harvard team that seems to have found a good balance between experience and a strong recruiting class.

Offensively, the Crimson is powered by Bernhard along with second team all-Ivy selection Bryan Brissette.

Brissette, the starting catcher, batted .325 last season and looks to be one of Harvard's biggest sluggers this season as well. Mark Levy, the team's center fielder, is also one of the Crimson's primary offensive threats.

"I don't think we have one real dominant player who will bat .400 for us." Berhard said, "Instead, we have several players who have the potential to bat .300."

Defensively, the name of the game is experience. The Crimson have several returning pitchers competing for a spot on the starting rotation. The pitching staff is led by co-team pitchers-of-the-year junior Chip Harris and senior Michael Cicero.

Senior Jamie Irving appears to have recovered from his off-season elbow surgery and should be back in the rotation.

In addition to the experience, Harvard has greatly benefitted from a excellent recruiting class. While not all of the freshmen will start or even contribute this year, they all should greatly benefit from the experience and knowledge that this year's team has to offer them.

However, as Berhard noticed the team might be almost too balanced.

"We have the talent to win the Ivy League, but chemistry is going to be very important," Berhard said. "We have a lot of talent, a lot of which won't play as much as it likes to. That is about the only potential problem."

The Crimson's toughest foe this year appears to be Yale. The Bulldogs are the defending Ivy League champions, have always been one of Harvard's most difficult opponents and looks to be again this year.

According to Levy, the key to the season lies in the beginning of Ivy League play in which the Crimson play the southern Ivy League teams, Cornell, Columbia, Penn and Princeton.

"I think the key to the season is getting off to a good start," Levy said. "If we can win about six out of those first eight, we should be in real good shape."

If they can pull this off they should be in good shape heading into the games against the Ivy League teams in their division, Yale, Dart-mouth and Brown.

But, as always, talk is cheap before the teams take the field.

Hochandel summed up, "Ability-wise we have a good team, but it is hard to tell, after only hitting in the cage.