Baseball Defies Early Expectations

It has been a wet and wild first half of the Ivy League baseball season.

Four weather-delayed games are scheduled for today before interdivision play—and with it the first half of the Ivy season—is officially concluded, but the Ivy season has already produced skyrocketing prospects, unfulfilled expectations and a new favorite—Harvard.

Less than two weeks after the Crimson baseball team—picked to finish third in the Red Rolfe division by Baseball America—kicked off its conference schedule with a loss to Cornell, Harvard (13-9-1, 7-1 Ivy) is on a seven-game Ivy win streak entering the beginning of divisional play this weekend.

The streak has put Harvard two games up on Dartmouth, Brown and Yale.

Over in the Lou Gehrig division, the biggest story is the struggles of eight-time defending division champion Princeton.

The Tigers—who have won three of the last four Ivy titles, including last year’s—are only 3-5 in the league after splitting games with Dartmouth, Yale and Brown and getting swept by Harvard.

Columbia leads the division at 5-5, which means that despite its recent poor showings, the Tigers are only a game back and still the favorites to win the division.

And they’re confident they’ll do just that.

“We haven’t hit our stride, but I can’t say it worries me,” centerfielder B.J. Szymanski told the Daily Princetonian after the Tigers split a pair with Yale to finish last weekend 2-2. “We’re still confident that we can win a lot of games.”

AND THE WINNER IS

If the award for Ivy Player of the Year were handed out today, Harvard’s Trey Hendricks would seem to be one of three favorites.

The senior—who doubles as a pitcher and infielder for the Crimson—is in the middle of a stellar season both on the mound and at the plate.

Hendricks is currently second in the league—and 10th in the nation—in batting average at .448, and is among the league leaders in hits, RBI, slugging and on-base percentage.

Hendricks has also won both of his league starts, allowing only three earned runs in 17 innings.

The other top candidates for the award—Dartmouth shortstop Ed Lucas and Szymanski—are also posting impressive seasons.

Lucas leads the league in batting average and hits, and is No. 4 nationally in batting average (.466). However, his power numbers (two homer uns, 14 RBI), speed numbers (2-for-3 on stolen bases) and defense (seven errors and a .927 fielding percentage) are not as impressive.

Szymanski has seen his batting average drop to .389 after struggling last weekend, but has stolen six-of-eight bases and shown good power numbers along with phenomenal range and arm strength in the outfield.

Some preseason favorites to win the award—most notably Dartmouth’s Scott Shirrell—have struggled.

The senior outfielder Shirrell is a three-time first team All-Ivy selection, and is most notorious in Cambridge for the three-homer, 14-RBI performance he put up against Harvard his sophomore season.

This season, however, he is struggling at the plate, hitting only .233-2-12.

Other players who could make a run for the award if they get hot include the duo currently leading the league in home runs—Penn centerfielder Nate Moffie and Harvard infielder Zak Farkes.

PROSPECT ALERT

Perhaps the only thing more surprising than the early slide of the Tigers is the meteoric rise of their centerfielder.

Szymanski—who entered the year completely off the scouting radar—is currently projected to be taken in the first round of June’s amateur draft, probably ahead of fellow Tiger top prospect Ross Ohlendorf, a 6’5 fireballer who may also go in the first round.

Szymanski is, according to one scout who talked with Baseball America, “as good an athlete as there is in college baseball.”

WHERE THEY ARE NOW

Three Harvard alumni in professional baseball began their regular seasons in the past week.

Ben Crockett ’02 opened the season with the Visalia Oaks—the high-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies—with a very solid start, allowing one earned run on four hits over five innings.

Crockett was the 2002 Ivy Pitcher of the Year before being selected by the Rockies in the third round of the amateur draft.

Kenon Ronz ’03 also saw his first time on the mound this season, pitching two innings of relief for the West Michigan Whitecaps, the low-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

Brian Lentz ’02-’03 opened the season with the Mariners’ high-A club, the Inland Empire 66ers, while John Birtwell ’01—a pitching prospect in the Tigers’ organization—has not yet been assigned, but is expected to play for the AA Erie SeaWolves.

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.