Performance of the Year Runner-Up: Trey Hendricks

When a typical reliever throws 60 pitches in the eighth and ninth innings of a game, the next place he goes is an ice bath, not the pitching mound.

But with the season on the line against Dartmouth, pitcher Trey Hendricks could not be talked about in terms of your typical anything. Adjectives like “nervous,” “tired” and “depleted” simply failed.

“Untouchable” did not.

The Crimson co-captain threw a shutout against the Big Green to keep the year alive single-handedly in hostile Hanover, N.H., right after virtually exhausting himself in the loss the day prior.

“We rode him this year,” junior Schuyler Mann said. “It was fitting that he was the one who went out to do it.”

And in the final analysis, the 5-0 victory was truly impressive, if only for its context.

Less than 24 hours after dropping the second game in the series—with Hendricks himself blowing the save in a dreadful relief appearance—Harvard found its back firmly against the wall in the thick of a tense Red Rolfe division race. A single Crimson loss would clinch an Ivy League Championship berth for Dartmouth, and Coach Joe Walsh looked to his ace to be the stopper.

“He threw 60 pitches, yeah, but he’s the guy everyone wanted out there, no matter what,” Mann said.

And as if Hendricks had simply flipped on a switch, the result was masterful. The Texas native scattered six harmless hits—four singles and two bunts—while allowing just one batter as far as second base. Working quickly, he walked none and spun his signature, knee-buckling curve along with a precise fastball to keep his opponents from getting a chance to settle in.

Easily, Hendricks gathered his league-leading ninth win, completely shutting down a team that had been hitting .330, among the best in all of Division I.

“He wanted to pitch the fourth game, too,” senior pitcher Morgalis said. “He was saying, ‘I can go again, I can go again.’”

Harvard knew it well, but it took one particular shutout to remind everyone else that Trey Hendricks was by no means your typical anything.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.