Baseball Bats Go Through Dog Days

Prior to the start of this season, fifth year Harvard Coach Joe Walsh suggested that this year's baseball team would produce runs with more power, rather than its traditional nickel-and-dime approach to manufacturing runs.

Walsh's more balanced approach works in theory, provided that the hits are there.

This weekend, against the team with the worst record in the Ivy League, they weren't.

Harvard's bats slept for much of the weekend, and the team dropped two of its three games against the woeful Bulldogs of Yale (2-9, 10-23 Ivy). Yale's wins against on Saturday afternoon and Sunday were its first against Ivy League competition this year.

Harvard (14-16, 8-3 Ivy) was shut out for the first two games, and has been held scoreless on three occasions so far this season.

Yale captain Tony Coyne torched the Crimson this weekend, batting 6-for-8 with 3 RBIs. However, what hurt Harvard far more was its inability to get timely hitting throughout the weekend.

The weekend was originally supposed to feature four games, but the weather shut down Saturday's scheduled bottom half of the doubleheader. It will be made up tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM, giving the Crimson an extra day to solve its woes at the plate.

Harvard 6, Yale 1

After being shutout twice by Yale, the team hoped to rally behind the arm of junior John Birtwell (1-1). Last year's Ivy League Pitcher of the Year lived up to his end of the bargain, pitching a complete game and allowing only one run.

Birtwell allowed five hits, struck out one and walked none in his seven innings of work.

However, even though the runs were there for the Crimson tonight, the hits were not. Harvard was able to muster only five hits, and most of its offense came as a result of the inability of Yale pitching to get the ball over the plate. Harvard garnered three RBI walks in the game.

Tri-captain Jeff Bridich reached base in the first inning on an error by Yale shortstop Mike Hirschfield. After stealing second, Bridich moved to third on a balk and scored on a John Franey sacrifice fly.

At this point, the run-starved Crimson was prepared to take runs regardless of how they came. Harvrd would get even more ugly runs in the next inning.

In the second stanza, third baseman Nick Carter walked with one out, followed by a double by fellow sophomore shortstop Mark Mager. Yale pitcher Craig Breslow (0-3) proceeded to walk the next two batters he faced, including John O'Donnell and Faiz Shakir with the bases juiced to put the Crimson up 3-0. Breslow was replaced by John Steitz, who promptly walked another Harvard run in. A Brian Lentz groundout RBI capped Harvard's scoring before Scot Hopps grounded out to end the inning.

Birtwell gave up his only run in the third, when Yale center fielder Chris Elkins sacrificed with runners on second and third.

Harvard tacked on another run in the top of the seventh when Hopps singled down the left field line to score Lentz, but overall, the Crimson bats were far quieter than the score indicated. No Crimson batter was able to get more than one hit off the three Yale pitchers used.

Yale 4, Harvard 0

In the series opener, Harvard got a rare opportunity to be a part of history, as they witnessed the fall of the McCarthy ERA.

Yale southpaw Matt McCarthy (3-5) pitched a gem, blanking the Crimson for seven innings. He scattered seven hits, struck out six, and gave up only one walk.

Harvard squandered the few offensive opportunities it had. Junior left fielder Joe Llanes led off the third inning with a triple to center field and had a chance to take the lead, but McCarthy got consecutive groundouts out of tri-captain first baseman Erik Binkowski and Mager. Shakir flied out to center in the next at bat, and the threat was over.

With one out in the top of the fifth and Bridich on third, history repeated itself. McCarthy got Binkowski on groundout to the shortstop and Mager on a comebacker that second baseman Brian Ivy handled, and the Crimson once again failed to capitalize. Sophomore Justin Nyweide (2-3) kept the Crimson in it for the first four innings, matching McCarthy frame-for-frame with six strikeouts.

Nyweide began to unravel in the fifth, however, when Yale captain Tony Coyne reached him for a single to center field. Nyweide balked the runner to second, and Eli third baseman Steve Duke advanced him to third on a successful bunt attempt. The next batter, right fielder Keith Reams, singled to left to bring the first run home.

Nyweide would give up two more runs before he was lifted for freshman reliever Kenon Ronz.

Ronz allowed another run to score before pitching a scoreless sixth.

Yale 8, Harvard 0

Sunday's first game provided the Crimson with a chance to rebound from an embarrassing loss to an inferior team, but they weren't ready for Sudha Reddy.

The senior righthander picked up where McCarthy had left off, dominating the Crimson for nine innings. The dazzling complete game performance by Reddy included seven strikeouts and no walks.

Outside of a 3-for-4 outing by Shakir and 2-for-4 hitting by Franey, Reddy (4-4) allowed only one run.

Sophomore Ben Crockett (3-1) was not quite as fortunate. Last year's Ivy Rookie Pitcher of the year lasted 7.1 innings, but allowed six earned runs on nine hits in losing his first game of the year. Crockett did manage to strike out six, while walking none.

The Bulldogs were able to reach him, though, and this time, they started early. The first batter Crockett faced, Elkins, led off the bottom of the first with a sharp double to left, and left-fielder R.D. DeSantis singled two batters later.

Crockett then threw a wild pitch that allowed DeSantis to advance to second. Coyne followed up with a single up the middle to score Elkins, and catcher Darren Beasley brought DeSantis home to make the score 2-0 Yale.

Yale second baseman Brian Ivy sent a Crockett offering over the left field fence in the sixth to add to the lead, but Yale put the game completely out of reach with a five-run eighth stanza. Coyne's two-RBI triple chased Crockett, and Sevier allowed another RBI single to Beasley.

Sevier's relief appearance was a rocky one, as he allowed two additional runs on a RBI single by Reams and a wild pitch later in the eighth inning.