Baseball Draws Waves

The deans of New England baseball are California dreaming.

The Harvard baseball team will open its third straight trip to the NCAA tournament on Friday, facing No. 12 Pepperdine in Los Angeles.

The Crimson (28-18, 16-4 Ivy) drew the No. 4 seed in the four-team regional, and will face the Waves (43-14) in the opening day nightcap. Host USC (33-23), which is seeded second, will play No. 3 Virginia Commonwealth (40-18) in the opener at Dedeaux Field.

The teams will play a double-elimination bracket, with the winner advancing to the Super Regional field of 16 teams.

"With 16 regional sites, we expected a four seed," said Harvard Coach Joe Walsh. "Pepperdine is strong, and I think USC might be the best team in the country if it wasn't for injuries. Those are two teams that could be No. 1 seeds. It's a good, strong regional and anybody can beat anybody in it."

The Waves paced the West Coast Conference (WCC) all season before falling 2-1 to Loyola Marymount in the conference tournament. Pepperdine was a shoo-in for an automatic bid after posting wins over all five ranked opponents on its regular-season, including a pair over national No. 3 Cal-State Fullerton.

"We're excited but we recognize that we're in a regional with very talented one and two seeds," said junior first baseman Erik Binkowski. "These are two teams that definitely like the long ball."

Harvard clinched a trip to the expanded 64-team field after a ninth inning rally saved the third and deciding game of the Ivy League Championship Series from Princeton May 9 at O'Donnell Field.

Pepperdine hitters pepper the WCC leader board, with third baseman G.J. Raymundo leading the way at .382 with 14 home runs and 57 RBI. The senior, who spent two years at Fresno Community College before transferring to Pepperdine, also slugged .717 with 31 extra base hits in 49 games.

Sophomore catcher Dane Sardinha bats .374 with 11 home runs and 56 RBI and has collected 85 hits, second-best in the conference. As a team, the Waves slug .494 to the Crimson's .426, and bat .326 to Harvard's .314.

Containing power hitting will be a challenge Harvard is accustomed to facing in NCAA play. In last year's South II Regional in Baton Rouge, La., the Crimson surrendered 43 runs in four games, most to powerhouses Fullerton and Tulane.

One factor playing in Harvard's favor is surrogate home-field advantage. Since host USC wants a Pepperdine loss in the first round, the Trojan faithful will be pulling for the Crimson.

"It's a nice position to be in," Walsh said. "In the last few years, we've gotten a couple of wins off crowds. It's really something to see 6,000 people in the stands with half of them wearing Harvard T-Shirts."

That scenario has played out for the last two trips to the regional, last year when LSU fans pulled for Harvard against in-state rival Tulane, and in 1997 when Oklahoma State rooters helped along a 7-2 upset of UCLA.

But the Crimson has not played since a lackluster doubleheader sweep at Northeastern two days after clinching the Ivy, and the three-week layover is a potential problem.

"That's a big concern for us," Walsh said. "Since the season has ended we've been practicing, but we're a team that's getting a little testy. We need to go out and play. But you can also look at it the other way and say it's good because we're rested."

Walsh has had his club working in simulated games over the last two weeks, fitting practices around the finals crunch.

"We've been taking it very seriously," Binkowski said. "Sometimes you can take practice games nonchalantly, but Coach Walsh had us playing in uniforms, he divided us into two teams and we made it a mini-series. It's helped us to stay sharp and we're chomping at the bit to play."

The Pepperdine pitching staff more than matches its counterparts in the batter's box, with a WCC-leading 3.76 ERA. Opponents bat just .256 against the Waves' staff.

A trio of workhorse starters, plus the best closer in college baseball, keys the men on the bump. Jay Adams (10-1, 2.58), Daniel Haren (9-3, 3.38) and Brad Tucker (8-2, 3.55) are the rotation's top three, and each has thrown over 100 innings.

"The scouting report said that all three of them were two-pitch pitchers," Binkowski said. "All of them hit the high 80s or low 90s on the gun, and [Adams and Haren] throw split-fingered fast-balls. [Tucker] has a good overhand curve."

Closer Jay Gehrke leads the nation in saves, with 18 in 29 appearances, and opponents bat just .182 against him. By contrast, the Crimson's regular first-game starter, Garett Vail, also leads the club with three saves.

Notes

The Crimson has faced four teams that qualified for the tournament: Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Florida International and Providence. In those games, Harvard is 2-4, with wins over the Sooners Mar. 26 in Homestead, Fla., and the Friars Apr. 15 at O'Donnell Field. The Buckeyes received a No. 1 seed and host a regional in Columbus, Ohio.

Providence has rapidly emerged as the sentimental favorite in the field, since the school will cancel its baseball program after this season to comply with Title IX regulations.