Split Gives Harvard First Ivy Win

At long last, it came.

The first game of yesterday’s doubleheader against Cornell seemed like just another kind of heartbreak for the Crimson, whose lineup put up five runs against Big Red pitching but could only watch as Cornell shortstop Scott Hardinger’s walk-off triple sent Harvard to a 6-5 loss.

But a complete-game gem from freshman Zach Hofeld was just what the doctor ordered for the ailing and struggling Crimson, and a 2-1 victory in the second game of the twinbill—the team’s first Ivy win, and its first overall in over three weeks—gave Harvard something from which it could turn its season in a new direction.

“We’ve just been finding every way imaginable to lose these games,” senior Matt Kramer said. “I guess we just said, ‘We’ve seen it all, let’s just go out and take it as it goes and live to see another day.’”

Both teams entered the doubleheader looking for their first Ivy wins, and each would have to be satisfied with a split.

“Are we happy coming out with a split?” coach Joe Walsh asked. “Well, it just feels good to win.”

Tonight, the Crimson’s first-round matchup in the annual Beanpot tournament will conclude a whirlwind stretch of baseball—after this evening’s game, Harvard will have played seven games in the last four days. The first pitch against UMass is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at Fraser Field in Lynn, Mass.

HARVARD 2, CORNELL 1

The Crimson picked up a much-needed win in the second leg of yesterday’s doubleheader in Ithaca, using a breakout effort from Hofeld to take a 2-1 victory over Cornell in a pitcher’s duel.

“[Hofeld] pitched one heck of a ballgame,” Walsh said. “[Freshman catcher] Tyler Albright really called a tremendous game. They really had them swinging and missing.”

Freshmen were indeed the toast of the day, with Hofeld and Albright combining on the four-hitter and rookie Dillon O’Neill driving in all two runs of the game’s offense.

Hofeld was roughed up in several outings during last month’s grueling nonconference schedule, but was thrust into the spotlight yesterday with Harvard’s pitching corps sorely depleted. The freshman responded in by far the biggest spot of his career, allowing just one run on four hits while pitching all nine innings. A strikeout of Big Red centerfielder Ry Kagan put the exclamation mark on Hofeld’s first collegiate win—the Crimson’s first in over three weeks.

“Guys were down a little bit after the first game and we needed something to pick us up again and get us going a little bit,” Hofeld said. “I was just thinking about going out there and establishing my fastball and getting some off-speed pitches working.”

As the Harvard rookie battled against Cornell starter David Rochefort, the score stayed at a scoreless tie through the first four innings.

In the fifth, senior Taylor Meehan led off with a walk but was erased with fielder’s choice grounder from junior Matt Rogers. Rogers stole second and senior Jeff Stoeckel walked, and after Stoeckel and Rogers executed a double steal, O’Neill plated them both with a two-run single up the middle—all the offense Hofeld would need.

CORNELL 6, HARVARD 5

After trading leads with the Big Red throughout the game and finding itself tied entering the bottom of the seventh inning, the Crimson saw its production go to waste as Hardinger’s RBI triple delivered a 6-5 walk-off victory for Cornell.

After an error by third baseman Sean O’Hara allowed Cornell’s Jadd Schmeltzer to reach base, Hardinger hammered a fastball from senior Brad Unger into the gap, and Schmeltzer came around easily to extend Harvard’s woes.

“It was like a wake in the dugout after that game,” Walsh said. “We felt like we had our chances to win that one. Losing really stung.”

Unger pitched 2.1 innings in relief of freshman starter Dan Berardo after throwing a full seven frames on Sunday against the Lions.

In his first career start, Berardo scattered four runs and seven hits over four innings of work and kept a suddenly-awakened Harvard offense in the game as it swapped leads with the Big Red. He ran into trouble in the fifth, when he loaded the bases with no outs before surrendering back-to-back run-scoring hits—at that point, Walsh called for Unger.

“Until that last hit, they hadn’t really hit the ball hard off Berardo,” Walsh said.

Kramer paced the Crimson lineup from the eight-spot, going 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored in the opener. Hardinger gave Crimson pitching trouble throughout Game One, finishing 2-for-4 with three RBI.

While O’Hara’s error in the seventh led to Hardinger’s dramatic finish, sloppy play in the field plagued the Crimson throughout the game. Back-to-back errors by Unger and first baseman Harry Douglas in the sixth allowed Domenic DiRicco, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, to come all the way around and give Cornell a 5-4 lead.

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