Rain, Rams Ruin Baseball Home Debut

The Harvard baseball team opened its 2003 home campaign on a sloppy note at O’Donnell Field yesterday, losing 3-0 to Rhode Island during a steady rainfall that cut the game short after only five innings. With the loss, the Crimson dropped to 5-10 in its last game before the start of the Ivy League season while the Rams improved their record to 11-13.

Both teams battled the rain as well as the pitchers at the plate all day, mustering only three hits apiece. URI, however, was able to produce runs while Harvard left all five of its baserunners stranded on the afternoon.

“It was a tough day to play baseball,” said freshman righthander Wes Cosgriff, who pitched two innings in relief. “It’s difficult to land on the mound with that kind of rain but I think the conditions were even tougher on the hitters.”

Rhode Island leadoff hitter Dan Hayden was a sparkplug for the Rams, opening the game by drawing a walk off of Harvard senior hurler Brendan Reed. Hayden promptly stole second and two batters later took off for third. The throw from senior catcher Brian Lentz seemed to be in time, but it bounced off freshman Josh Klimkiewicz’s glove into left field. Hayden came around to score an unearned run.

“We knew coming into the game that URI liked to play this type of a game on the bases,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “I think that Rhode Island coach Frank Leoni is the best coach in New England and I would like to see our team be able to manufacture runs like that. But if we know that’s what is coming, we have to be able to stop it.”

The Rams scored again in the fifth off of Cosgriff thanks to more stolen bases. With Hayden on first and Josh Nestor on third, Hayden took off for second and Lentz fired the ball towards shortstop Ian Wallace. When Nestor started from third, Harvard freshman second baseman Zak Farkes cut off Lentz’s throw and attempted to throw Nestor out at the plate. Farkes one-hopped the throw to the plate and Nestor slid in before Lentz could apply the tag.

After a Cosgriff wild pitch allowed Hayden to take third and Wayne Russo walked, the Rams put on the exact same double-steal play with the same result. Farkes again cut off Lentz’s throw but was unable to fire the ball home in time to beat Hayden and the Rams went up 3-0.

“It’s frustrating that they could score that much on baserunning,” Walsh said. “But we just need to execute better—the pitchers need to get the ball to the plate quicker, the catcher needs to make a good throw, and on the cutoff play Farkes just has to learn to come through the ball a little bit more.”

On an encouraging note, the Crimson was able to get five solid innings from the combination of Reed and Cosgriff, two players that could help at the back end of the rotation or in the bullpen down the road in the Ivy League season.

Reed pitched three innings, striking out three while only walking one and surrendering two hits and no earned runs. In the fourth, Cosgriff struck out the heart of Rhode Island’s lineup in order, fanning the four, five and six hitters before running into a little bit of difficulty in the fifth.

“I think I pitched pretty well,” Cosgriff said. “I was throwing both my fastball and my curve pretty well but Brian Lentz called a great game as always and I was able to get some confidence. I didn’t locate the ball as well in the [fifth] inning but I just need to get some innings under my belt and I felt good today.”

Harvard’s best chance to score came in the second inning, when junior first baseman Trey Hendricks drew a leadoff walk and sophomore DH Schuyler Mann singled to right-center to put two men on with none out. The Crimson squandered the opportunity when Klimkiewicz flew out to left, and freshmen Lance Salsgiver and Chris Mackey grounded out.

“Today our guys were trying to pull the ball a little bit too much rather than sitting back and driving it,” Walsh said. “But I still think this team is going to be very good at some point, and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.”