Baseball Squares Off Against Northeastern

Less than one week after its 7-1 shellacking of Northeastern in the Beanpot consolation match, the Harvard baseball team gets set to do it again today at Friedman Diamond.

Last Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Crimson (25-15, 16-4 Ivy) used seven pitchers in as many innings, and received some key hits from its battery to crush the Huskies (19-17, 11-9 America East) for third place in the Beanpot tournament.

More recently, the Crimson is coming off a four-game set against Ivy League foe Dartmouth. And after taking three games out of four on the weekend from the Big Green, the Crimson clinched its fourth consecutive Red Rolfe Division title.

The division championship sends Harvard up against Lou Gehrig division winner Princeton for the Ancient Eight title--the fourth straight year that the two teams have met for the title. The winner of this best-of-three game series, to be held next weekend at O'Donnell field, earns the right to move on to the NCAA regionals.

Having already earned the right to fight for a regional spot, the Crimson match-up against the Huskies this afternoon assumes much less importance. Win or lose, Harvard's chances for further postseason play will not be affected.

However, despite the seeming unimportance of the contest, the Crimson are focused on Northeastern, trying to eliminate any chance of losing its edge with its big weekend match against the Tigers looming.

"We're definitely going to go full-out against them tomorrow, and will try our hardest to win," captain Hal Carey said. "We have two games before Princeton, and we want to get both wins to have a little momentum going into the weekend."

Having defeated the Huskies last Thursday 7-1--as well as blanking them 11-0 in last year's Beanpot consolation game--Harvard comes into the contest a clear favorite.

But despite its obvious success against Northeastern in the past, the Crimson players do not feel that the outcome of today's game is certain by any means.

"Northeastern definitely poses a challenge for us," Carey said. "We have had some success against them; we've gotten good pitching and timely hitting, but you never know what's going to happen. They've played us real tough in the past."

As it prepares to take on the Huskies, Harvard will look to its formidable lineup to continue its recent trend of lighting up the scoreboard. The Crimson battery has produced an average of over eight runs per game in each of its past five contests.

Leading the way for Harvard at the plate has been senior center fielder Andrew Huling. Huling--a leading candidate for Ivy League Player of the Year honors--has been spectacular both with the bat and the glove this season. He leads the team with a .422 batting average, five home runs and 50 RBI, and has routinely made great plays in the field.

Junior first baseman Erik Binkowski has also showed strong play this season. Binkowski is hitting an impressive .320, to go along with three home runs and 30 RBI. He has made a habit of coming up with key hits in crucial situations for Harvard.

It is not known who will take the mound for the Crimson today against Northeastern, but if recent trends hold, Coach Joe Walsh will send up a plethora of hurlers during the game. In last week's Beanpot consolation against the Huskies--another game with no post-season implications--Walsh sent up a different pitcher in each inning.

It is likely that Walsh will have a similar strategy today, as he tries to get his pitcher some work before the weekend.

"We don't know who's pitching," Carey said, "but [Walsh] probably plans on getting some guys some innings during the game, so that they can be sharp on Saturday."

The Crimson has one final game after today's matchup against the Huskies before shifting its full attention to Princeton. Tomorrow Harvard will play host to UMass, the very team that defeated it last week in the final of the Beanpot, 13-12. The Crimson will look to avenge that loss before playing for the Ivy League crown.