Tensions Run High Against Brown

As usual, the annual series between the Harvard and Brown baseball teams had a little bit of everything.

Late-inning heroics marked the nightcap of Saturday’s twinbill, as freshman Sean O’Hara drilled a bases-clearing double to put the Crimson on top for the first time in the game en route to its second of four wins on the weekend. Sunday saw, of course, two complete-game efforts from coach Joe Walsh’s senior aces, not to mention a combined 23-hit performance by Harvard sluggers on the afternoon.

But the doubleheader also displayed the animosity that lingers between these two rival clubs—even in a series that means less than it has in recent seasons.

After a one-out single from Bears designated hitter Conor Reardon, catcher Matt Colantonio forced his teammate at second base with an infield grounder. Reardon slid into second baseman Taylor Meehan with his spikes up, and Unger had a few words for his opponent after the out was recorded.

Brown’s first base coach had a few more offensive words for the umpiring crew that didn’t take action after Unger’s words, and after a few minutes of being restrained by one umpire, he was ejected from the game.

“You’ve got to protect your players,” senior Shawn Haviland said in defense of his teammate. “The coach took exception to it. If he was trying to get them fired up, it didn’t really work.”

In the bottom of the seventh, when Brown reliever Josh Feit hit senior Matt Kramer with a pitch, the home plate umpire warned both teams.

“It’s always intense with Brown,” Haviland added. “They don’t like us, we don’t like them.”

OUCH

Freshman right fielder Dillon O’Neill gave the Crimson a scare in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader when he was struck in the face with a fastball from Brown’s Will Weidig.

O’Neill squared around to bunt with two strikes on him in the bottom of the fourth inning, but only managed to foul tip the ball, which deflected squarely into the rookie’s nose.

Blood flowed out of O’Neill’s nose as he hit the ground, and Walsh and the Harvard trainer came out of the dugout to attend to him.

O’Neill eventually left the field on his own power to a round of applause from the crowd.

“The good thing was it wasn’t the teeth or the eyes,” Walsh said. “But there was a lot of blood.”

O’Neill was sent to University Health Services after the game for treatment, although Walsh was not overly concerned about the speedy outfielder.

“I just hope he’s a hardnosed ballplayer,” Walsh joked after Saturday’s game.

Walsh wisely kept O’Neill out of the lineup for yesterday’s doubleheader, but the freshman was allegedly “tugging on [Walsh’s] arm during the game to play.”

“When you have that kind of fight from within, it’s amazing,” Walsh said. “It exemplifies all the freshmen.”

O CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

As captain Matt Vance goes, so does the Crimson’s offensive attack.

Vance struggled mightily in the early going of the Ivy League season, failing to find his rhythm at the plate after Harvard returned from its spring break trip to California.

“We took a tough trip to San Diego, faced a lot of real good pitching,” Vance said. “It’s tough for some guys to get fully settled in the box.”

But the Harvard captain has come on of late, going 11-for-23 with eight RBI in his past seven games and catalyzing a resurgent Crimson offense.

“[Vance] stroked the ball as well as he’s had today,” Walsh said after yesterday’s doubleheader. “He’s been struggling, but now he’s really swinging the bat.”

“I’m starting to feel better again, back to how I was last year,” Vance said. “It took a while for me to get comfortable.”

Harvard has taken Vance’s cue, scoring 33 runs in its last five games.

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.