Baseball Drops Three of Four in Opening Ivy Weekend

Despite entering the first weekend of Ivy play with just two wins under its belt, the Harvard baseball team came out strong, earning a 6-2 victory over Cornell on Saturday in the weekend’s first matchup. But the Crimson went on to drop its next three contests, beginning with a defeat at the hands of the Big Red in the second game of its first doubleheader, 12-7.

Princeton swept Harvard on Sunday by scores of 12-6 and 4-1, respectively, to round out another tough weekend on the road for the Crimson.

“Because it was our first Ivy League weekend, we really wanted to make a statement in [the first] game,” said sophomore first baseman Steven Dill. “The first game of Ivy season is always huge.”

The Crimson bats came alive in both matchups against Cornell, and the team outhit its Big Red counterparts, 22-17, for a total of 13 runs on the day.

“We really haven’t had too many offensive struggles this year,” said junior third baseman Kyle Larrow. “Our bats have been going every game, which is good as far as keeping us in the game…. From a building standpoint, hitting is something we’re going to try to ride in Ivy League series and hopefully get a lot of wins.”

After Harvard’s lengthy roadtrip from Ithaca to Princeton, the Tigers outhit the Crimson (3-19, 1-3 Ivy), 16-12, on Sunday, as junior captain Andrew Ferreira and freshman Tanner Anderson picked up losses on the mound for the Crimson.

But despite the losses, the team remains positive about its chances as it enters the heat of Ivy season.

“I feel pretty good about our team after this weekend,” freshman centerfielder Mike Martin said. “The games we were losing, I felt we weren’t being outmatched. We were just not executing up to our potential. Wins will come once we start stringing hits together.”

PRINCETON 12, HARVARD 6

For the third time on the weekend, Harvard took an early lead over one of its Ancient Eight rivals. But Princeton (9-10, 3-1) scoring streaks quickly shifted the tide in favor of the Tigers.

“We got a lot of hits off of [Princeton pitcher Kevin Link]. We just couldn’t string them together,” Martin said.

Sophomore left fielder Jack Colton got Harvard on the board in the second inning, scoring on classmate Jake McGuiggan’s sacrifice fly.

But Princeton responded in the bottom half of the second. After third baseman Sam Mulroy was hit by a pitch, back-to-back RBI hits gave the Tigers the 2-1 edge.

Senior second baseman Jeff Reynolds hit his second home run of the weekend in the third inning, and Martin also hit one out of the park in the ninth, sending home three runners. But Princeton’s five-run sixth quieted any Harvard hopes of a comeback.

“We gave them a lot of 3-1 counts,” Martin said. “And they went up there and hit doubles and triples.”

PRINCETON 4, HARVARD 1

Princeton jumped out of the gate in the first contest between the two teams, picking up three runs in the fourth inning on a wild pitch, a walk, and a single from Tigers right fielder Alec Keller.

In the sixth inning, Princeton added its fourth and final run of the game, as second baseman Alex Flink batted in fellow infielder Jonathan York.

Senior catcher John Smart earned Harvard’s lone RBI of the game, sending home freshman right fielder Zach Boden with a single to right field in the seventh. But that was as close as the Crimson would get in the 4-1 loss to the Tigers.

“In the first game [of the series], we faced a pretty good pitcher [in Princeton’s Matt Bowman],” Martin said. “He pretty much shut us down.”

CORNELL 12, HARVARD 7

Although Harvard amassed a six-run lead in Saturday’s second contest, scoring five runs in the first two innings, Cornell (15-5-1, 2-1) tied up the game with a six-run effort in the bottom of the fifth. The Big Red took the lead one inning later, plating three runners in the sixth frame. Harvard failed to recover from the deficit.

“The second game [on Saturday] slipped through our fingertips,” said senior left-handed pitcher Brent Suter. “I thought we should have taken two from them [on Saturday].”

Harvard threatened in the eighth inning, as freshman catcher Ethan Ferreira batted in Boden on a single down the first base line. But while Boden’s score put the game within reach, 9-7, Cornell scored three more in the bottom of the eighth to put the contest out of reach.

“We just gave them too many good pitches to hit,” Suter said. “We fell behind from a pitching standpoint. Our offense put enough runs up to win the game…. We let things that were in our control slip a bit.”

Dill led the Crimson with four hits in as many at bats on the game, while sophomore right fielder Zach Boden scored two runs for the Crimson.

Cornell second baseman Brenton Peters cleared the bases with a three-run triple in the eighth inning to seal Harvard’s fate. The middle infielder led his team with four RBIs in the game.

“It was definitely disappointing to have them score those late runs in such a close game,” Dill said. “But that happens sometimes. They just put bat on ball and drove it.”

HARVARD 6, CORNELL 2

In its Ivy League season opener, the Crimson took a two-run lead in the first inning, as senior designated hitter Marcus Way batted in sophomore shortstop Carlton Bailey.  Later that same inning, Way scored a run of his own, unearned, on a single from sophomore outfielder Jack Colton.

But unlike in its second game of the day, Harvard was able to hold on to the early lead, allowing just two runs over the course of seven innings.

“We were plugged in, both on defense and on offense,” Suter said. “It was a good, complete team win.”

Harvard struck again in the fourth inning, as Smart’s sacrifice fly scored Boden, giving the Crimson its second unearned run of the day.

“We came out strong,” Dill said. “There are definitely a lot of positives to build on. Our hitting was good, our defense was very good and our pitching.”

In the fifth inning, Colton batted in Way with a single. The Crimson stretched its lead to 6-1 in the sixth inning, as Martin and Smart each scored runs on RBIs from Smart and Way, respectively.

“The first game was huge for us,” Larrow said. “We were able to get the lead early and held onto it, which was really big…. It’s nice to come out hot in the first game [of Ivy play] and get runs on the board well.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.