Crimson Falls Flat In Season’s Home Opener

It may have been the team’s first game of the season in Cambridge, but home field advantage wasn’t enough to get the Harvard baseball team a win at O’Donnell Field yesterday afternoon.

In a game marked by defensive highs and lows, as well as strong pitching by both sides, the Crimson (8-15, 2-2 Ivy) fell 5-0 to Bryant (10-13, 2-2 NEC) in its season’s home opener.

While midweek games are often challenging enough on their own, Harvard faced an even bigger test when it went up against one of the Bulldog’s best hurlers.

“We’re thinking, ‘Who’s this guy on a Tuesday?’” Crimson coach Joe Walsh said. “[It] turns out he’s one of their top guys.”

Bryant senior starter Eric Polvani pitched over seven innings of play and allowed only five hits and zero runs. Polvani’s powerful performances have been key for the Bulldogs this season, even though yesterday’s game was only the 16th of his college career.

“He kept us off balance,” Harvard sophomore Jeff Reynolds said “We just didn’t adjust as a team.”

That said, the Crimson had effective pitching of its own from yesterday’s starter, freshman Joey Novak.

“We were really happy with the way Novak pitched today,” Walsh said. “He was throwing the ball well, with good velocity, and he’s giving me thoughts about that fourth spot we have open on the weekends.”

The game was Novak’s first start for Harvard, and brings his record to 1-2 on the season.

While the Crimson’s pitchers held their own on the mound, two costly throwing mistakes helped Bryant build up its lead in later innings on the way to the win.

The defensive control of play started early in the game, with Novak striking out the Bulldog’s first hitter swinging and both teams allowing their opponents only one hit through the end of the second inning.

In the third frame, Bryant looked like it was about to take the lead after its runner advanced to third base off a Harvard error with two-outs in the inning, but the next batter grounded out to Novak, leaving the runner stranded.

The Crimson also presented its first threat of the game when three hitters got on base in the bottom of the third.

But the Bulldogs’ defense pulled through, leaving Harvard junior Sam Franklin and sophomore Brent Suter on base.

An RBI double by junior Zakary Cianciolo put Bryant ahead in the top of the fourth, and a two-out homer by freshman Kevin Brown gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead by the end of the next inning.

But the lead could have been bigger, were it not for Suter running down a fly ball at the right-field fence in the top of the fifth, making it his second huge defensive play of the night.

“Suter’s such a great athlete,” Reynolds said. “And he really showed it there.”

But in the sixth inning, Bryant pulled even further ahead when senior Nick Campbell advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored an unearned run off a throwing error by Novak.

While Polvani’s pitching kept the Crimson’s bats quiet, the Bulldogs steadily built their lead and made it 4-0 by the eighth inning, thanks to another Harvard throwing error, this time by junior reliever Zach Hofeld.

“Two big plays today were where our pitchers overthrew the bases, and [Bryant] wrapped up two runs,” Walsh said. “In a game like that today, you go into the late innings trailing four to nothing, versus two to nothing, and it makes you play a little differently.”

In the bottom of the eighth, it looked as if the Crimson offense might finally get on the board when junior Sean O’Hara hit a hard line drive up the center with two outs and two men on base.

But the Bulldogs’ centerfielder made a sliding catch just behind second base to get the inning’s final out.

In the ninth, both teams failed to get even a hit, and the game ended in a 5-0 victory for Bryant.

Despite the loss, Waslh was optimistic about his team’s play against the Bulldogs.

“We had some good defense and some good pitching today,” Walsh said. “But [Bryant’s] pitcher had some great stuff going on up there on the mound, and in the end, they’re just a good ball club.”

—Staff writer Madeleine Smith can be reached at smith21@college.harvard.edu.