Ill-Fated Beanpot Rained Out; Baseball Awaits Ivy Championships

Hopefully the phrase "when it rains it pours" only applies to the Harvard baseball team's luck with the weather this week.

Harvard (26-10, 17-4 Ivy) saw its last tuneup before the crucial Ivy League title series this weekend in Princeton, N.J. washed away by inclement weather.

After it was twice postponed due to intervention from above, the Beanpot final with UMass was finally canceled altogether when Wednesday's date at Amherst was rained out and no future dates were scheduled.

This week's rain--which also caused a rainout of Tuesday's scheduled game against Northeastern--forces the Crimson to enter tomorrow's championship series opener with Princeton (23-13, 12-8) on a week-long lay-off. The team has not seen action since an extra-innings defeat at the hands of Dartmouth last Sunday.

While this means Harvard's staff should be well-rested, it also raises questions about the team's ability to come out to the blocks with the offensive firepower it displayed in the Dartmouth series.

The Crimson faces Princeton, winners of the league's Lou Gehrig Division, in a best-of-three-game series to decide the overall Ivy champion and the Ivy representative to next weekend's NCAA play-in game against the winner of the Metro Atlantic Conference. The series will feature a double header tomorrow with Game 3 on Sunday if necessary.

After entering last weekend with a near stranglehold on the league's Gehrig Division, the Tigers nearly suffered a calamitous fall. Needing only one win in a four-game series with Cornell to secure the title, on Sunday night Princeton found itself down 0-3 in the series, needing a victory in the finale to continue its season.

Cornell kept up its level of play, forcing Game 4 to a 3-3 tie after seven innings. In the second extra frame, however, freshman Joe Watterson belted a two-out game-winning single that propelled the Tigers into this weekend's league title series.

Harvard, the runaway winner of the league Red Rolfe Division, split a double header in the team's only previous meeting this year. The Crimson must get more consistent outings on the mound if they hope to control this weekend's series. In the first game against Princeton on April 4, junior Andrew Duffel threw six innings of two-run ball to earn the 6-3 victory.

In Game 2, however, Harvard pitchers were shelled for 10 runs, and the offense was unable to bail out the staff, racking up only a pair of runs in the 10-2 setback.

To ensure quality starts, Harvard will most likely stick with its three most experienced starters, juniors Duffel, Garett Vail, and Donny Damieson, each of whom has thrown 35-plus innings this season and sports an ERA below four.

These starters must be especially careful with Princeton freshman Max Krance. The rightfielder was named the Ivy Rookie of the Week last week and led the Tigers in batting at .418 entering last weekend's games. Krance has notched 21 runs and 21 RBIs.

Harvard's offensive bite has been especially good in recent games. Last season's Ivy Player of the Year, Brian Ralph, is hitting .392 since his return from an early season injury and has six homeruns in only 63 at-bats.