Baseball Looks To Improve After Early Season Ups and Downs

When Stetson swept the Harvard baseball team in the opening weekend of spring break, outscoring the group 43-6, the Crimson’s season came to an early crossroads. Coming after two wins against Wofford and three against Mercer, the Stetson series halted Harvard’s momentum.

After a day of rest, the Crimson (11-12, 0-4 Ivy) took the field against UMass in a doubleheader. The Minutemen took an early 2-0 lead in the first frame, forcing Harvard to play from behind. But the Crimson responded, scoring in every inning to take the first game decisively, 9-3. In the second game of the doubleheader, Harvard again played from behind, but the team plated eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings to build up a comfortable lead and won, 11-8.

The pair of wins against UMass revitalized the Crimson after the Stetson series and set the team’s 2015 campaign on a different path than that of any recent season. Harvard closed its spring break with three wins against Army to compile a winning record in nonconference play for the first time since 2005, the last year the Crimson won the Ivy League Championship. Harvard has won as many games in the nonconference portion of its season as the team won all of last season.

“The 10-8 start was definitely a culmination of timely hitting and good at-bats, with good pitching to keep our offensive opponents in check,” said senior second baseman Jake McGuiggan.

Although the Crimson lost nine seniors to graduation last May, including second-team All-Ivy finisher Carlton Bailey and honorable mention Kyle Larrow, eight returning seniors have filled that void.

“We have a lot of guys who have a ton of playing experience over the past two or three years,” McGuiggan said. “That’s definitely something we can use to our advantage throughout the year. We have guys that we can rely on that have been there before and done some good things throughout the Ivy League.”

That experience has made an impact up and down the lineup. Compared to last season, when Harvard collectively had a .241 batting average in March, this year’s squad is batting .268. Since the team’s average has improved in each of the past three seasons, the Crimson offense hopes to improve upon its early success against the Ancient Eight.

McGuiggan and senior Ethan Ferreira have paced Harvard’s offense thus far, batting .369 and .372, respectively. The second baseman and catcher each have collected at least 30 hits and have combined for 35 RBI, more than a third of the team’s total.

Returning all-Ivy first-team selection and leadoff hitter Mike Martin has had a slower start to his senior season. But he continues to make noise on the base paths, leading the Ivy League with 13 stolen bases.

“Mike’s a playmaker when he gets on the bases,” senior pitcher Tanner Anderson said. “There’s really no one who can throw him out.”

The mostly upperclassmen lineup has received a boost from two freshmen, Conor Quinn and Matt Rothenberg. While Quinn has started most games for Harvard and has collected five RBI and scored 11 runs, Rothenberg has stepped up off the bench, batting .333 and knocking in five RBI in 30 at-bats.

Despite one of Harvard’s best showings in nonconference play in recent seasons, the team opened Ivy play right where it left off last season—on the losing end of a series of competitive games. After losing its final seven conference games last season, two in extra innings and five by fewer than three runs, the Crimson fell to Columbia and Penn in its four opening Ivy games, two in extra innings and all four by two runs or fewer.

“Obviously losing three out of those four games on walk-off hits is devastating,” McGuiggan said. “But we can’t hang our heads too much after this past weekend because we know we still have a lot of good opportunities ahead of us especially against the three other teams on our side in Dartmouth, Brown, and Yale.”

Last year Harvard also went winless against the Lions and Quakers, but lost all four games by at least three runs. The increased competitiveness of the games this year was largely due to the Crimson’s starting pitchers.

Returning from an injury that sidelined him for most of his junior season, Anderson took the ball against Penn and gave up just one hit and one run in seven innings of work. Although Anderson’s start highlighted the weekend, sophomore Nick Gruener, senior Matt Timoney, and junior Sean Poppen also put together strong outings that were spoiled by lack of run support.

“I think it’s better that we lost these opening games rather than getting complacent later,” Anderson said. “Now we know that it’s time to go.”

—Staff writer Eileen P. Storey can be reached at estorey@college.harvard.edu.