Baseball Seeks Consolation

After dropping a 13-12, nine-inning decision to UMass on Monday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Harvard baseball team looks to turn things around against Northeastern today in the consolation game of the Beanpot tournament.

The contest between the two teams is a re-match of the semifinal match of last year's Beanpot. In that game the Crimson (21-14, 13-3 Ivy) spanked the Huskies (17-14), 11-0, to advance to the championship game, which was cancelled due to rain.

Harvard is hoping for more of the same this time around, but it will need to improve on a lackluster performance from its usually solid pitching staff to duplicate last year's result.

Against the Minutemen (22-12), the Crimson squandered a 10-4 fourth inning lead.

The Harvard bats were working, lighting the scoreboard up for 12 runs on 18 hits. But the pitching simply wasn't there for the Crimson as it surrendered 14 hits, including two home runs and two doubles, to UMass.

"It seems that this season we've hit well in some games and haven't pitched too great, or the opposite," captain Hal Carey said. "We simply had trouble combining the two, but we'll get it all together and will be fine."

Aside from some improved pitching out of its hurlers, Harvard will look to continue its onslaught at the plate. The Crimson has averaged over nine runs per game over its last five contests, winning four of them.

"We've really started to hit the ball well as a team the past couple of weeks," Carey said. "Early on in the season, we struggled a bit at the plate, but lately everyone has been doing his part."

Leading the way with the sticks for Harvard this season has been senior center fielder Andrew Hulling. In addition to his sparkling play in the field, Huling's .415 average, 5 home runs, 43 RBI and 12 doubles are all tops on the squad. Hulling went 2-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored on Monday.

Junior first baseman Erik Binkowski has also been murderous at the plate. He is hitting .336 with three home runs and 28 RBI on the year.

The hottest hitter in the Crimson lineup of late has been junior designated hitter Jeff Bridich. Bridich--who was recently named Ivy League Player of the Week after going 9-for-14 with eight RBI and a home run against Brown last weekend--is hitting an even .400 on the year with three home runs and 19 RBI. Against the Minutemen, he went 2-for-5 with three RBI and a homerun.

With all of this firepower, the Crimson will face a Huskies club with an excellent 3.65 team ERA.

"We feel confident going in, and we feel that we should win," Carey said. "But we are definitely not looking ahead of them. We are both different teams from last year, and we are taking this as a different game."