O’Hara Jumpstarts Harvard’s Momentum

New energy was sparked into the baseball team during their doubleheader against Brown last Saturday as freshman Sean O’Hara stepped up to the plate. Trailing 4-0 to Brown in the fifth inning of a seven inning game, O’Hara hit a three-run double, giving his team the momentum needed to win the game with a 6-4 score.

For O’Hara, his three-run double had additional significance; it was a play that promoted him from a struggling freshman to a playmaker for the team.

“As a freshman you always want to come in and try to prove yourself. Early on in the season, the other freshmen and myself, kind of struggled. That hit actually symbolized the freshmen making their move from just being freshmen to being actual true parts on the team,” O’Hara said.

Winning the first game against Brown was also a crucial turning point for the team, who went on to win three more games for a total of four consecutive wins and its first weekend sweep of the season. O’Hara’s momentum-changing hit proved crucial to the team’s success this weekend.

“In a seven inning game, the team that gets runs early usually has the upper hand in the game. But having him come up like that and get those with big runs completely turned the momentum around in that game, and it also changed the momentum for the rest of the weekend,” senior captain Matt Vance said.

This season, the baseball team has struggled with bringing in runs when the bases are loaded; however, O’Hara was able to bring all three runners in after getting down in the count with two strikes.

“I fell behind early in the count, I had two strikes on me, and bases were loaded. I had to get the ball in play somewhere,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara has made the shift necessary to become a key contributor to the four-game winning streak, one of the few his team has had this season. His strengthened presence on the team will hopefully continue to spark life into a season that has been full of ups and downs—for the first time in a long time, the Crimson enters its final weekend of play eliminated from postseason contention.

Senior Matt Kramer has noticed that O’Hara’s swing has improved in the past few weeks after the team took a spring break training trip to California. After working with coaches following his early-season slump, O’Hara feels more comfortable at the plate now that he has adopted a different stance.

“Early in the season I was struggling at the plate, I had a really crouched stance,” O’Hara said. “After talking with the coach I kind of straightened out a little bit and stood up a little more, making me feel more comfortable at the plate. I think that definitely contributed to feeling relaxed and getting a good spin on the ball.”

O’Hara’s new batting techniques helped him get two hits in both of the games against Brown on Saturday, and his hitting streak continued with an RBI and two hits in the double header against Brown the next day.

Vance notes that the training O’Hara has received this season has given him the experience necessary to be able to make game-changing plays.

“Just getting the experience of playing everyday, he’s definitely much more prepared this weekend than he has been. He’s just a freshman, so this experience has been good for him,” Vance said.

Although this late winning streak may not be able to resurrect the baseball team’s chances at a post season, the emergence of strong rising sophomore players bodes well for the team’s future. The team still has a lot of fight left in it, and the wins garnered this weekend with the help of O’Hara will hopefully contribute to a strong ending of the season this weekend against Dartmouth.

O’Hara’s improvement did not happen by chance. His teammate Kramer admires his good work ethic and sees O’Hara’s success this weekend as hard work paying off.

“He’s a very hard worker. He always puts in the extra work. When you follow that kind of hard work ethic, it shows.”