Baseball Readies for NCAA Elimination Game Against Missouri

FULLERTON, Calif.—It was a thoughtful if rather perfunctory visit—it’s not often that Harvard baseball scrapes out a series in Southern California, after all—but perhaps Los Angeles Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta ’95 was really on to something.

The former Harvard baseball and football player took time away from running one of Major League Baseball’s most storied franchises to speak to the Crimson before last night’s 19-0 blowout at Cal State Fullerton.

“He’s actually a pretty cool guy,” said junior right fielder Lance Salsgiver of DePodesta. “He told us the anecdote about how when he played football for three years, he was one of the smallest players in the league.”

DePodesta, it seems, was once so rung by a hit from an opposing free safety after a first-down catch—he was a Crimson wide receiver—that he then mistakenly scuffled his way to the opposing huddle.

The lesson, regardless of DePodesta’s intent: memories are made after the hit.

When Harvard (29-16) takes on the No. 3-seeded Missouri Tigers (39-22) at 7 p.m. EST this afternoon at Fullerton’s Goodwin Field, they will have a chance to redeem themselves from a particularly rude awakening.

A win would give the Crimson a Sunday afternoon showdown against the loser of tonight’s Cal State Fullerton-Arizona game in the winner’s bracket, which experts are calling the toughest No. 1 versus No. 2 game in the country.

A loss would send Harvard packing, cutting short a memorable Ivy League championship season.

“We definitely don’t have anything to lose,” Salsgiver said. “Last night was as bad as it gets for us.”

“Basically,” he said, “we should come out fearless.”

The Crimson will take heart in a bit of recent history.

In 1998, shortly after winning the Ivy League Championship, Harvard lost what was until last night its worst playoff defeat in program history—a 16-1 decision to No. 1-seeded Cal State Fullerton.

The Crimson eliminated Nicholls State in the loser’s bracket the next day, and then defeated Tulane 14-11 to earn another shot at the Titans.

Only after taking an early lead did Harvard finally lose a much tighter 11-7 decision.

“That’s good news,” Salsgiver said. “I can definitely see the possibility of that happening to us. We now know the right way and wrong way to approach the game.”

After a night of defensive anxiety and hurried at-bats—thanks, in part, to the rowdy presence of the second-largest crowd in Fullerton history at 3,604 strong, as well as ESPN cameras and the pressure of playing the champs—the Crimson will benefit from playing before a customarily smallish crowd against Missouri.

Salsgiver said that the team no longer feels “the pressure to do too much.”

“Maybe people thought we needed to be changing our approach,” he said.

Frank Herrmann (5-1, 3.09 ERA, .222 batting average against), who was the team’s No. 1 starter during the season and its most effective pitcher against Ivy League opponents, will take the hill against the Tigers.

If Herrmann faces trouble against a Missouri lineup that scored the second-most runs in the Big 12 Conference—and which features a home run-hitting outfielder by the name of James Boone (.347, 7 HR, 71 RBI)—then the Crimson may bring in standout freshman Shawn Haviland in relief.

“When you’re on the ropes, it’s no use saving guys,” Salsgiver said.

Missouri’s pitching situation remains murkier. Either the Tigers will send their No. 2 starter, sophomore Nathan Culp (9-2, 3.18), to the mound, or they will save him for a hypothetical Sunday Game 3.

In that event, they will turn to a trio of juniors—lefty Taylor Parker (1-2, 1.90), who started only two games this season but remains an option, and right-handers Doug Mathis (5-4, 3.27) and Nick Admire (2-2, 3.69), who could also start—to face the Crimson.

In any case, of paramount importance will be bouncing back from a defeat that has Harvard on the brink of elimination.

Certainly the Crimson will take the advice of one of its most distinguished alumni to heart.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu. For the rest of the weekend, he will issue reports live from the Fullerton Regional.