Momentum Swings Mark Weekend Series

On a weekend when many Americans had taxes and the IRS on the brain, the Harvard baseball team had a similar acronym in mind—the ICS. That stands for Ivy Championship Series, the title that the Crimson won last season, and represents the playoff that awaits the winners of the Ancient Eight’s two divisions.

Harvard entered its weekend road trip to New Haven as one of four teams, all with winning records, bunched atop the Red Rolfe Division, tied for the lead with Brown and one game clear of Yale and Dartmouth. The Crimson (14-13-1, 9-3 Ivy) moved one step closer to the ICS by splitting four games with the Bulldogs (21-14, 8-4 Ivy), remaining in first place after the Bears and Big Green also battled to a weekend stalemate.

“When you play Rolfe teams, the legitimate goal you have going into each weekend is to win three out of four,” senior captain Morgan Brown said. “But splitting, with the fact that Dartmouth and Brown did what they did, is not a terrible outcome.”

YALE 10, HARVARD 8

Harvard could not hold on to an early 4-0 edge and eventually fell, 10-8, in the nightcap at Yale Field.

Thanks to three throwing errors by Yale third baseman Zac Bradley and a two-run double by Steffan Wilson, the Crimson plated four in the opening inning, and took a 5-2 lead in the third after a solo home run off the bat of Josh Klimkiewicz. The big fly was the 23rd of Klimkiewicz’s Harvard tenure, moving him within five of Zak Farkes’ school record.

But the tables turned in the bottom of the third, when the Bulldogs exploded for five runs off of starter Brad Unger and reliever Max Warren. A two-run blast by Marc Sawyer and two more hits chased Unger, then Warren surrendered two doubles and watched an error before departing without delivering an out. Freshman Adam Cole escaped the jam, but ran into trouble of his own in the fourth, when Yale extended its lead to 9-6.

“For Yale, if they had lost three games this weekend,” Brown said, “That would have really crippled them in the Rolfe Division race. I think they had the fire in their eyes seeing the outcome of their season hanging in the balance.”

The Crimson had a final chance to come back against closer Brett Rosenthal in the top of the ninth, scoring one on a double by Brown and loading the bases with two outs before sophomore Matt Vance struck out to end it.

Both bullpens managed to stem the tide in the later innings: Yale held the dynamic Harvard offense to one run over the final four innings, while Wilson and senior Lance Salsgiver permitted just two hits over the final five frames. Salsgiver pitched two perfect innings in his stint.

Vance piled onto his Ivy-leading stolen base figure with two more steals, after swiping three each in his two previous games, pushing his season total to 22.

HARVARD 12, YALE 2

Senior Javier Castellanos twirled another gem for the Crimson, earning his third Ivy League victory in as many weeks with a complete-game six-hitter in the Sunday opener.

Riding the excitement of its come-from-behind triumph in the late game the day before, Harvard seized the momentum in the early going and sealed the win with a five-run fifth inning in support of Castellanos.

In his final season in Cambridge, Castellanos has seemingly put it all together for the first time, harnessing his always-potent pitches consistently to post quality starts. Yesterday, he needed just 94 pitches to shut down the Bulldogs over seven innings.

“He’s been great recently,” fellow hurler Shawn Haviland said. “He throws the ball really hard and has a great slider. I think control’s always been his issue, but he’s smoothed out his mechanics.”

Klimkiewicz provided the punch, going 3-for-4 with five RBI. He stroked an RBI single for the Crimson’s first run in the first, knocked in two more with a base hit in the second, and added a two-run insurance double in the seventh.

Wilson and catcher Andrew Casey had two RBI apiece, while Vance and Salsgiver reached base a combined eight times, scored six runs, and stole four bases out of the 1-2 spots in the order.

HARVARD 8, YALE 7

The Crimson forced a split of the Saturday doubleheader with a late surge and narrow escape in the see-saw nightcap.

“After losing that first one, we were backed into a corner a little bit,” Haviland said. “I think we showed great resolve as a team.”

Harvard overcame a 7-4 deficit with a three-run, two-out rally in the eighth inning to knot the contest and a go-ahead run in the ninth. Senior Lance Salsgiver, who went 4-for-5 with a double, home run, two stolen bases, and three runs scored in the game, got things started with a hard single into left field. Matt Vance, Steffan Wilson, and pinch-hitter Morgan Brown all followed with RBI knocks to even the game.

The Crimson went ahead in the ninth when a throwing error by the Bulldogs pitcher brought senior Chris Mackey around to score.

Then, in the bottom of the last, the infield converted a misplayed, bases-loaded pop-up into a game-ending double play. After some confusion regarding the infield fly rule, which was in fact in effect, the shallow fly dropped in fair in short left field, but Wilson alertly flipped the ball to Brown, who applied the tag to the runner leading off third to end the inning and returned the ball to Wilson for a superfluous tag out.

“The call from the umpire was infield fly rule was in effect if it was fair,” Brown said. “It came down fair by a couple of inches. Steffan and I had the old 5-6-5 triple play where only two of the outs counted.”

Starter Adam Cole struggled for the first time in Ivy League action, lasting only 3 2/3 innings and allowing three runs on seven hits. Matt Brunnig earned his third win of the season with two scoreless innings of relief and Castellanos threw a single pitch in nailing down his first save of the year.

Yale squandered its opportunities throughout the game, stranding 17 runners on base; Harvard left 12 on.

YALE 3, HARVARD 1

Sophomore Shawn Haviland incurred another difficult decision in the Saturday opener, picking up the loss after allowing two unearned runs in the fifth inning.

A dropped third strike by Casey afforded Yale an extra out and a throwing error by Wilson led to the second run of the frame, giving the Bulldogs a permanent lead.

Vance, the lone player on either team to record a multi-hit game, singled in Casey in the top of the fifth to tie the game briefly.

Haviland’s final line read six innings, five hits, one walk, and four strikeouts. He moves to 2-4 on the season with the defeat.

“We feel terrible for the kid,” Brown said, “Because he’s absolutely pitched [like] the best pitcher in the Ivy League, which he is, two weekends in a row, but he has two losses to show for it rather than two wins. You can’t waste pitching performances like that down the stretch.”

Alec Smith was stellar on the hill for Yale, permitting only five hits and one unearned run in going the full seven innings.

The Crimson continues its season tomorrow in the opening round of the annual Beanpot tournament, meeting Northeastern in Lynn, Mass. at 4 p.m.

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