With Division Lead, Crimson Controls Fate

With only one week left in the regular season, the Harvard baseball team

controls its own destiny. After finishing off its rain-delayed series with

Brown and winning three of four games, the Crimson stands at the top of theRolfe Division with a 12-4 league record (18-14-1 overall). Dartmouth, which has yet to make up its postponed doubleheader with Yale, sits a whole game behind at 10-4, while Yale is two games back (9-5). The Bears’ three losses left it at 9-7 in the league, but the team avoided mathematical elimination with a 16-2 victory in the second game, which was shortened to eight innings due to darkness.

In the first game, Harvard showcased strong pitching and timely hitting to put Brown away 5-2 and score its third straight win over Brown. The Bears grabbed some redemption with their lopsided victory in the second game.

BROWN 16, HARVARD 2

The Bears wasted no time getting on the board in the nightcap, quickly chasing Crimson starter Mike Dukovich from the game in the first inning. Dukovich threw two wild pitches and allowed two walks, two singles, and a triple in the inning. The Bears scored two runs before Dukovich was removed in favor of sophomore Brad Unger, who struck out left fielder Adjatay Nyadjroh to end the inning. Although Harvard would strike back with a run of its own in the bottom of the first, the Bears would not relinquish the lead.

Brown grabbed a commanding lead with a four-run fifth that opened up a close 3-2 game and led to Unger’s departure. Although Jason Brown, who came in to relieve Unger, allowed only one of his inherited runners to score, the Bears offense was very much alive and swinging for the fences. The Bears put the game away with nine runs in the eighth-- they sent 14 runners to the plate and notched eight hits in the inning. Tews and Christian-- two of the top hitters in the Ivy League-- led the offensive onslaught, totaling three hits and three runs each.

“Even though you’re looking ahead, you don’t like someone having to take the bullet for you like that, captain Morgan Brown said. “Jason’s a tough kid, and with the Beanpot Bhampionships tomorrow and Rhode Island on Wednesday, and then the biggest weekend of the year with Darmouth, it’s unfortunate we had to throw Jason in. He’ll throw well this weekend; it’s not a reflection on him.”

Brown’s Jeff Dietz threw a complete game for the bears, allowing eight hits and two runs and striking out eight. He also contributed four RBI’s from the batter’s box.

“That sidearm guy [Dietz] is pretty good-- his slider moved about two feet, sophomore Matt Vance said. “Then it started getting dark and we had trouble seeing the ball. He was more tricky than the pitcher we faced in the first game.”

Harvard was led by Morgan Brown offensively, who went 2-3 in the game.

HARVARD 5, BROWN 2

The Crimson took its third straight game from Brown with a come-from-behind 5-2

win in the opener. Vance reached base in all four plate appearances and Javier Castellanos willed his way to his fourth consecutive victory as Harvard took charge in the later innings.

After the Bears posted single runs with two-out base hits in the second and third innings, the Crimson tied the game with a pair of scores in the bottom half.

Vance, left on base after a leadoff double in his first at-bat, sparked the rally by lashing a one-out triple down the right-field line and scored when senior Lance Salsgiver reached on a throwing error. Salsgiver moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, and came around on an RBI single from Steffan Wilson. Harvard then took the lead for good with a run in the fourth, this time courtesy of the bottom of its order. Junior catcher Andrew Casey moved sophomore Taylor Meehan to third with a double to left field. Meehan rushed home on a wild pitch from Brown starter Ethan Silverstein.

“It was a really balanced approach,” Morgan Brown said. “I think everyone contributed, except for me, in the first game. The depth is amazing.”

When the Bears advanced the potential tying run to third with one out in the fifth, Castellanos was lifted in favor of Dukovich. Dukovich quickly induced a strikeout and a groundout to escape the jam.

“He’s a fighter,” Vance said of Castellanos, who hung in for the win on an afternoon when he clearly lacked his best stuff.

The Crimson iced it with two tallies in the sixth. Casey, Vance, and Salsgiver ripped consecutive singles with one out to push the score to 4-2. Pinch hitter Harry Douglas lifted a sacrifice fly to right to bring home Vance with game’s last run.

“Someone told me I saw like 26 pitches from the kid,” Vance said. “So my last

two at-bats I had seen every pitch he had and he wasn’t going to fool me.”

Salsgiver worked the final two innings for his first save, allowing one hit and

striking out three.

The Crimson will travel to Fenway Park for the Beanpot Championship tomorrow at 5 p.m. against Boston College. It will look to avenge an ugly 10-0 loss to the Eagles earlier this year. Northeastern and Boston University will play at Fenway in the consolation game at 1 p.m.

—Staff writers Jonathan Lehman and Julie R. S. Fogarty can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu and fogarty2@fas.harvard.edu, respectively.