Baseball Drops Road Contest to Holy Cross

The Harvard baseball team registered ten hits on Wednesday evening, but it proved not to be enough to bail out its pitching staff as the Crimson fell, 11-4, to Holy Cross in Worcester. The Crusaders (9-16) had five innings in which they posted two or more runs as the Harvard (7-10) hurlers struggled to find the strike zone. The game was the team’s final nonconference contest before Ivy League play, which begins this weekend.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted, but it was good to get out there one more time before Ivies, get one more game under our belt,” co-captain Matt Sanders said. “It was good toward the end, we got some guys who have had limited at-bats earlier in the season, they got in there and get some ABs. We had some guys throw who haven’t had as many innings this year so I think it’s going to be good experience.”

Freshman Simon Rosenblum-Larson got the ball for the Crimson and ran into trouble in his first and last innings of work. Holy Cross tagged the first-year for four earned runs in just three innings of work. Junior first baseman Anthony Critelli, who drove in four runs on the evening, tripled in the first while junior left fielder Bill Schlich homered two innings later for one of his three hits.

Sophomore utilityman Matt Rothenberg continued to be a bright spot for Harvard on Wednesday. The Boca Raton, Fla. native, a third baseman in high school who was the Crimson’s designated hitter against Holy Cross, is hitting .375 this season after going three-for-four with two runs scored on Wednesday.

“Momentum-wise, we definitely want to keep swinging the bats the way we’re doing,” Sanders said. “I think we’re hitting the ball very well and we’ve gotten production from pretty much everyone in our lineup top to bottom. We still need to put a little more emphasis on our bullpen. We’re getting off to some pretty good starts but we need to work on coming in there out of the bullpen and really shutting teams down.”

However, Rothenberg and company were unable to keep pace with the Holy Cross offense. Juniors Josh Ellis and Drew Reid each had two hits, but Harvard left 14 runners on base. While the Crusaders stranded eight baserunners of their own, the hosts were able to capitalize on clutch hitting and miscues from Crimson pitching.

“It’s a positive and a negative,” co-captain DJ Link said. “The bottom line is you need to get on base to score and you need to hit, but sometimes if a team has a lot of hits and not a lot of runs, it means you’re not necessarily getting the hits at the right times so it’s something as a team you need to work on and continue to do well. We’re getting hits and we’re getting on base, we just have to focus on manufacturing the runs.”

Sophomore hurlers Noah Zavolas and Dylan Combs combined to surrender four earned runs despite recording just three outs. Zavolas hit one batter while his classmate plunked three as both pitchers threw less than half of their pitches for strikes. Although seniors Shaun Rubin and Sean O’Neill temporarily closed the floodgates in the sixth and seventh, respectively, the deficit proved too great to overcome.

Senior Joey Sliepka struck out the side in the eighth despite walking two batters. Harvard posted single runs in the sixth and eighth with Reid driving in the first and freshman Ben Skinner drawing a bases loaded walk.

“The biggest key from a pitching and defense standpoint is to make them earn their way on base,” Link said. “Walking guys and hitting guys, it does two things: it gives free passes to the other team and it takes your defense out of the game because they’re not on their toes.”

–Staff writer Stephen J. Gleason can be reached at stephen.gleason@thecrimson.com.