Senior Powerful in the Clutch

Heading into the last weekend of the regular season, a four-game winner-take-all series against league rival Dartmouth, the Crimson baseball team was riding a surprising three-game losing streak in which it was outscored 40-16 and looked to be in need of a pick-me-up.

Luckily for Harvard, senior first baseman Josh Klimkiewicz returned to the lineup just in time.

Klimkiewicz, who had missed the previous five games due to injury, garnered four hits, including a monster home run, and four RBI’s, to help the Crimson grab the Rolfe Division title in a 23-9 victory in the last game of the series.

“Having Josh in the lineup is absolutely vital,” senior Matt Brunnig said. “It seems every time I pitch he hits a home run. I absolutely love having him in the lineup. He’s in the three to five hole, and every time he’s up, there’s people on base. Having his bat there makes all the difference in the world.”

After the Big Green scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score at nine, Klimkiewicz helped Harvard remain upbeat, and played a key role in its impressive 14-run comeback.

In the decisive eighth inning, in which the Crimson went on to score five runs, the first baseman laced a long double to right-center to score sophomore Taylor Meehan and chase Dartmouth closer Kyle Zeis from the game.

The floodgates opened after Zeis’s departure, as the Big Green’s Chris Lapointe could hardly silence the Crimson bats, allowing nine runs in only 1 1/3 innings.

“Most of the season where we play our best when we’re pushed up against a wall it seems,” Klimkiewicz said. “We knew we had to win this game or our season was over. Everybody came out knowing we were going to do it. We were tied 9-9. Everybody here knew we were going to win. It was just that feeling in the dugout.”

That attitude and swagger from the dugout demonstrate one of the reasons that the Crimson fares so well with the senior masher in the lineup. Besides his powerful bat--Klimkiewicz ranks fifth in the league with a .358 average and first in runs batted in with 41--he brings confidence to the plate.

“Having him in the middle, especially RBI situation,” head coach Joe Walsh said, “you can just see how the other team pitches him. It just sets the tone, you know? He’s standing up there like he’s trying to hit the ball out of the yard.”

And hit it out he did, with a crushing bomb against Zeis in the sixth inning that sailed over the trees past the left-field wall. The home run, his seventh of the season--tied for third best in the league--gave the Crimson a 9-5 lead.

After Harvard was silenced by the Big Green’s Jeff Wilkerson in the first game to force a deciding second game, the senior put Harvard on the scoreboard in the second game with a single that scored sophomore Matt Vance. He later came around to score, as the Crimson totaled four runs in the inning to get out to a fast start.

For his contributions at the plate and in the dugout, senior Josh Klimkiewicz is this week’s athlete of the week. As Harvard heads into an important Ivy Championship Series against Gehrig Division champion Princeton, the senior’s contributions will become even more vital. If history is any indication, Klimkiewicz will rise to the occasion.



—Julie R. S. Fogarty