Resilient Elis Hang Tough

To the extent that it’s possible, Yale baseball coach John Stupor has gotten used to the questions. His conversations can jump freely from the tragic to the banal—for example, the sparse crowds that make the shuttle bus trip to historic Yale Field and how to lure them in.

“There are two things that will bring people out to see you,” Stupor said yesterday. “One is a winning team. The other is nice weather. And that’s not necessarily in that order.”

When they do show up, even for losses, Yale’s fans have witnessed the uncommon this season. It has been three months since the tragic car accident on I-95 involving nine Yale athletes took the lives of four young men: junior Sean Fenton and sophomores Andrew Dwyer, Kyle Burnat and Nicholas Grass. Burnat and Grass were members of the Yale baseball team, and every game the Bulldogs play, they play for them.

Sophomore Zac Bradley, an outfielder, was also injured in the crash and is not playing baseball this season. Grass and Burnat were pitchers—Grass, a long reliever, Burnat seldom used. Between the three, Bradley—who was among the team’s leaders in stolen bases last season and likely would have started this year—was probably the most important contributor on the field for Yale baseball. But the emotional impact of losing two teammates, for obvious reasons, drastically alters the complexion of a season, no matter how often they played.

“The kids have rallied around this,” Stupor said. “Those were two very popular, well-loved kids, and we dedicated our season to them. And I said early on that we were going to do it not in how many games we won, but in how we go about doing it.”

Thus far, Yale baseball has done more than anyone would have expected. Projected by some as the only Red Rolfe Division team without a shot at contending for the championship, the Bulldogs are currently wedged in a three-way tie for the division lead. Yes, their Ivy League record is 3-5, and they have benefited significantly from what appears to be a weak year for the Rolfe, but the Bulldogs’ overall record is surprisingly close to .500 and, more than that, the team has simply played far better than the team that went 5-15 in the Ivies last year.

After losing pitchers Matt McCarthy and Craig Breslow to graduation and the Major League Baseball draft, Yale arms have thus far managed to post a respectable 3.86 ERA. But while pitching was supposed to remain a relative strength for the Bulldogs, hitting wasn’t, and Yale has still managed to find ways to score using last year’s returners.

2002 Second Team All-Ivy honoree Chris Elkins, expected by some to be the lone source of offense on a team that was last in the division last year, has been joined by surprising senior Dave Fortenbaugh (batting .384 with 12 RBI) and freshman Josh Zabar (.342, 11) to form a serviceable middle of the order. Zabar was a teammate of Harvard’s Zak Farkes and Josh Klimkiewicz last year at Cambridge’s BB&N School.

And where complementary players have become unavailable, heroes have surfaced.

Most recently, with No. 6 hitter and second baseman Steven Duke out with an injury last weekend, pitcher Josh Sowers stepped in to play second against Penn and Columbia. Sowers, who leads Yale’s staff with a 4-1 record, hit an RBI double in Yale’s only win over Penn, then came back and pitched the team to a win against Columbia the next day.

“I don’t think anyone would have expected us to be at 12-15 and right in the thick of the division hunt,” Stupor said. “We’ve had injuries beyond [Burnat and Grass], but people have stepped up.”

With the four game divisional series that begins today, Yale will have an opportunity to grab the early division lead. But the Crimson—desperate for offensive firepower but still very much a factor in the Red Rolfe race—does not want to see the Elis’ story get better at its expense.

“I’d love to see that Yale team have some success,” said Walsh, who described finding the best way to commemorate Yale’s loss as “difficult.” The Crimson sent Yale an autographed bat earlier this season as a token of its sympathy.

“I’d rather not see it happen at our hands,” Walsh added. “But bouncing back from a tragedy, that would be a story.”

The story will take its next turn this afternoon, one way or the other. In the context of the divisional race, this is a crucial weekend for Harvard and Yale’s baseball teams.

In another sense, it doesn’t matter at all.

“I’m proud of this team, no matter how things go this weekend or this season,” Stupor said.

Notes

Freshman Matt Brunnig should make his long-awaited Ivy League debut in today’s noon opener. “He threw a great bullpen for us yesterday,” Walsh said. “Fast and loose, great velocity.” Brunnig had missed two turns in the rotation with a right arm injury… Junior Trey Hendricks will pitch the second game… Klimkiewicz’s playing status is questionable, pending an MRI after swelling in his right knee. According to Walsh, the swelling may be related to the torn ACL Klimkiewicz suffered last year in high school. Klimkiewicz, who is batting .267 with eight RBIs, joins a list of walking wounded that also includes junior catcher Schuyler Mann (bruised hand) and senior pitcher Barry Wahlberg (severe blisters on pitching hand).

—Staff writer Martin S. Bell can be reached at msbell@fas.harvard.edu.