Game Two Disaster Tarnishes Haviland’s Gem

It was good, bad, and ugly for the Harvard baseball team yesterday as it split a makeup doubleheader with Yale at O’Donnell Field.

The Crimson (15-16, 10-6 Ivy) pulled out a 2-0 win in game one behind a dazzling one-hitter by junior Shawn Haviland, but the pitching imploded and the bats went quiet in game two, leading to a 13-0 rout by the Bulldogs (15-24, 7-9).

Yale hung an eight-spot on hurlers Adam Cole and Jake Bruton in the first inning of game two, creating a deficit from which Harvard could not rebound.

Coupled with a Brown sweep at Dartmouth yesterday, the Crimson slips to second place in the Red Rolfe Division, one game back of the Bears, who sit at 11-5 in league play.

Harvard has four games with the Big Green this coming weekend to gain back that ground, while Brown meets Yale for a four-game set.

“What’s done is done as far as game two,” senior catcher Andrew Casey said. “I think if we get four this weekend we might be in good shape.”

YALE 13, HARVARD 0

Sophomore Adam Cole lasted just one-third of an inning in his first Ivy League start of the season, walking three and allowing four hits before departing with the bases loaded in the top of the first in the nightcap.

Cole threw just 15 of his 36 pitches for strikes.

“He had a couple of tough breaks,” Haviland said of Cole, “and from there he just let it snowball.”

“I think it all comes down to command,” Casey added. “If you walk that many guys, especially early, it’s just bad news. The biggest thing to do is throw strikes.”

Senior Jake Bruton was ineffective in relief, permitting all three inherited runners plus one of his own to score as Yale leaped out to a 8-0 lead before a Harvard hitter had stepped to the plate.

The Bulldogs tacked on one more run in the fourth, three in the fifth, and a final tally in the seventh off a variety of Crimson relievers.

A lifeless Harvard lineup did little to respond, managing only seven hits and registering only three at-bats in five of the nine innings.

“Hitting is contagious,” Casey said. “Especially when you’re down like that, you have to get back quick, because the game’s getting shorter and shorter. Nobody really strung it together. Eight runs in the first isn’t something you want to come back from.”

The Crimson ran out of its best rally in the fourth inning when junior Matt Kramer committed interference on a no-out, bases-loaded ground ball. Kramer and the batter were both called out, and the runners were prevented from moving up a base.

Senior Marc Sawyer and sophomore Ryan Lavarnway, the prohibitive favorite to claim Ivy League Player of the Year honors, both had four hits for the Elis. Sawyer had singles to left field, center field, right field, and the infield as well as three runs scored.

Lavarnway bumped his average to a league-leading .462 and had four RBI—including a two-run bomb off junior Max Warren—to push his Ivy-best total to 49.

Warren, sophomore Hampton Foushee, and senior Jason Brown logged two innings apiece.

Levine and sophomore Jared Wortzman both recorded their first career at-bats.

HARVARD 2, YALE 0

Pitching on only three days’ rest, Haviland turned in a complete-game one-hitter in game one, blanking Yale for the second time this season.

“I actually thought it was going to work in reverse potentially, that they would already know how I was going to get them out,” Haviland said of the rare opportunity he had to face the same Ivy squad twice in one year. “But I think it definitely helps. We had success the first time so we knew how to attack them again.”

Haviland (3-2) faced only three batters over the minimum.

Dan Soltman scratched out the only hit against him leading off the third, but Haviland promptly erased him with a pickoff.

In fact, Haviland let the leadoff man reach in four of the first five innings (an error, the Soltman single, and two walks) but none of the baserunners advanced past second base. He retired nine straight Bulldogs to end the afternoon, including two of his four strikeouts.

“He was spotting all of his pitches well,” Casey said.

“He’s just a guy you can depend on, especially coming down the stretch. He’s a guy who just wants to be out there and he showed it today and threw a hell of a game.”

Captain Brendan Byrne drove in rookie Chris Rouches with the go-ahead run with a single to deep right field off Yale starter Brandon Josselyn in the third. Harvard added another run in the fifth on an RBI single from junior Matt Rogers.

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