BASEBALL '06: Any Questions?

Coach Joe Walsh traces a big question mark in the air with his forefinger.

He then pauses, before repeating the exercise and drawing an invisible exclamation point.

“You could throw either one of those on there,” he says.

Walsh, with his grammatical pantomimes, is referring to the pitching staff of this year’s Harvard baseball team, a unit loaded with uncertainties but possessing immeasurable potential.

The rotation is hampered by the loss of two key, experienced starters from a season ago. Mike Morgalis graduated and Frank Herrmann chose to forego his senior season to sign a professional contract with the Cleveland Indians organization.

Herrmann’s early exit, especially, stings the teammates he left behind in Cambridge.

“We would have loved to have Frank come back,” sophomore Shawn Haviland says. “I think that if Frank had come back, not to say that we still can’t, but I think if he was back we could have made a run at being a Top 25 team. And then [Morgalis], I think he might have been at Harvard for 17 years.”

Those departures leave Haviland as the lone returning regular on the mound, with a promising trio of freshman hurlers joining an intriguing collection of veterans to help him chew up innings for the Crimson in 2006.

Haviland, the de facto ace, went 7-1 in 14 appearances during his freshman campaign, leading the team with a 3.10 ERA and holding opponents to a .225 batting average. A pre-season first-team All-Ivy pick and the only Harvard representative on the All-Northeast Corridor squad, he hopes to rebound from a bout of mononucleosis late last spring and reprise his role as a surefire weekend starter.

“He had a real good season—7-1,” says Walsh of Haviland. “And I think he’s back a lot better than he was last year. He has his strength back, he’s healthy—I’m seeing a world of difference in him. We have a real battler out there.”

Beyond Haviland, the starting pitching picture is a bit murkier, but one candidate—flame-throwing frosh Adam Cole—has emerged as an early favorite to nail down a weekend spot. Despite Cole’s greenness, Walsh says his big-time stuff and bulldog mentality have the skipper prepared to throw the righty straight into the collegiate baseball fire.

“Adam is a 90-91 guy with a nasty slider,” Walsh says. “He may be one of the best athletes I’ve ever recruited. He’s got a chance to be a four-year starter for us, he has that kind of ability. Above all, he’s a lion out on the mound. He’s just a warrior. He goes out there, he wants the ball, he’s going after people. He’s going to get the ball when we go play Florida [on March 10-12].”

The heavily-touted rookie, for his part, is undaunted by the challenges and eager to toe the rubber for the first time as a member of the Crimson this weekend.

“I’m really excited for the season,” Cole says. “I can’t wait for it to get started. I know it’s a lot of pressure but I’m ready for anything Coach Walsh expects out of me and whenever he needs me, I’ll be ready.”

Rounding out the rotation will likely be a mix of old and new faces. Senior Javier Castellanos has been dialing up the radar gun in camp—as rumor has it, all the way to 94 mph—and ambidextrous classmate Matt Brunnig has shown flashes of brilliance in the past. Since the pitching situation so unsettled, this season is undoubtedly the occasion for this duo to rise to prominence and realize the extent of their abilities.

Freshman southpaw Ryan Watson, like Cole, also possesses the skills to take the ball every week and make an immediate impact. Six-foot-eight two-sport star Brad Unger, who hurled two scoreless frames in the NCAA Tournament last June, also finds himself in the fold.

“I don’t know what our rotation is going to be,” Walsh says. “But we have some guys that are going to be mainstays every weekend. If you want to translate that into depth, that’s what it is.”

The outlook for the bullpen is equally muddled and encouraging. Third baseman Steffan Wilson moonlights as the team’s closer, but a handful of able relievers will work to bridge the gap in the middle innings. Submarining junior Jason Brown, who refined his mechanics after a session with big-leaguer Mike Myers this off-season, fellow junior Jake Bruton, and a fully healthy senior Mike Dukovich will all serve as stoppers out of the pen. Freshman Hampton Foushee, another lefty, also expects to see some action, as does cannon-armed senior outfielder Lance Salsgiver (see page 4).

“Later in the year it can only benefit us with so many pitchers,” Cole says. “I think there’s definitely a lot of potential on the staff this year.”

With a potent Harvard offense in place that stacks heavy hitters up and down the lineup, the onus falls on the pitching staff to hold up its end of the bargain.

“If you just look at our lineup, we have nine guys who can swing the stick,” Haviland says, “so it’s going to depend on not just how our weekend starters pitch but also the guys that are coming out of the bullpen.”

If a clear collection of starters and relievers can emerge from the jumble of hurlers on the roster and coalesce into a stingy staff, the Crimson has a good chance to repeat as Ivy League champs.

And maybe, just maybe, replace the question mark with an exclamation point.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.