Baseball Swept By Charlotte in Weekend Road Series

In “The Bug,” Mary Chapin Carpenter sings, “Sometimes you’re the Louisville Slugger. Sometimes you’re the ball.”

Against Charlotte this past weekend, the Harvard baseball team (3-10) was the ball. The 49ers (11-5) scored more runs in each of the first two games than the Crimson was able to score all weekend, as Charlotte took three straight victories in Charlotte, N.C.

“I thought Charlotte was a much stronger ballclub than us,” Crimson coach Joe Walsh said. “That was reflected in the scores. Teams down here in Carolina are very good.

We’ve got a long way to go before we can compete with them.”

CHARLOTTE 4, HARVARD 1

The third time wasn’t quite the charm for the Crimson, but Harvard’s defense stepped up yesterday, allowing a little over a sixth of the offensive production it had given up the day before.

“I thought it was good that we bounced back a little,” sophomore Marcus Way said. “Defense made some really good plays. I was really pleased. It was a good one to end on.”

With Way on the mound, the Crimson held the 49ers scoreless in the first three innings before finally surrendering a run in fourth.

“We had a very well-pitched game,” Walsh said.

Soon after, Harvard picked up a run of its own when junior Sean O’Hara knocked in classmate Dillon O’Neill to even the score at 1-1.

But after Way left the mound after the fifth, sophomore Will Keuper took the ball and found that the Charlotte batters had a few runs left in them. Keuper allowed two runs in his lone inning of work.

By that point the Crimson bats—which had reached double digits in runs the day before—had dried out. Harvard’s offense was unable to solve 49ers pitcher Kelly McLain, who picked up the save in Charlotte’s third-straight win.

CHARLOTTE 18, HARVARD 10

Crimson freshman Kyle Larrow picked the wrong day to hit his first collegiate home run and pick up his first three RBI. Had he held off his offensive outburst until Sunday, the Crimson might have been able to head home with a victory.

Unfortunately for Harvard, the Crimson’s best showing at the plate of the season came on a day when its opponents hit the voting age in runs—half of which were scored in the third inning.

Before the third, Harvard had jumped out to an early lead when junior catcher Tyler Albright scored off a single from junior right fielder Joey Smith in the top of the second. But the 49ers soon changed the tone of the game, after Charlotte scored nine runs in the bottom of the third inning. First baseman Ryan Rivers was the first to strike, sending center fielder Cory Tilton home to put his team on the scoreboard. Rivers soon crossed the plate off a wild pitch from sophomore Brent Suter. Suter allowed seven runs before he was replaced by Matt Doyle. The freshman allowed two more runs before 49ers’ designated hitter Zane Williams struck out swinging.

“[Suter] pitched really well in the first two innings,” Walsh said. “He’s had some back issues, and it kind of stiffened up.”

The Crimson responded with a two-run inning in the top of the fourth, but soon after Charlotte responded with three-run innings in the fifth and sixth, effectively neutralizing Harvard’s six runs in the seventh inning and sending the Crimson to its second loss of the weekend.

CHARLOTTE 15, HARVARD 3

First is the worst.

So goes the popular, if cruel, children’s rhyme, and the 49ers certainly schooled the Crimson on Friday. The 12-run loss was Harvard’s worst of the season.

Unlike the final two games of the series, Charlotte wasted no time getting on the board, kicking off its abuse of junior pitcher Eric Eadington with two runs in the first inning. By the time Eadington left the mound, the 49ers were already up 8-2.

“[The 49ers] have a terrific offensive lineup,” Walsh said. “We got behind guys, walked guys, and every time we did, they punished us for it.”

Meanwhile, Harvard had already put together nearly all of the scoring it was going to get, though Smith scored an unearned run in eighth inning.

“We had an opportunity to play a really good team in Charlotte University,” Way said. “It was a tough break but I think we showed progress. I think we’re going to be really good.”

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.