Baseball Blasts Big Green Machine

When you're hot, you're hot, and the Harvard baseball team is scorching.

Harvard (25-11, 16-2 Ivy) clinched at least a share of first place in the Red Rolfe division yesterday as it swept Dartmouth (22-14, 11-7) in a double-header, 18-3 and 7-6, at newly christened O'Donnell Field.

In the first game, Harvard's bats rode the momentum they acquired in Wednesday's 27-run blitz of MIT to pile on 18 runs and give starter Frank Hogan (7-2) an easy win. The Big Green made it close in the nightcap, but timely hitting and stellar defense handed the sweep to the Crimson.

"Normally this season, it's been our pitching that's been coming through," said sophomore Donald Jamieson, who pitched the seventh inning of the second game. "But today our pitching wasn't as good as it has been, and our hitting came through and picked us up."

Harvard 18, Dartmouth 3

Yes, you read the score correctly.

Despite the 15-run margin of victory, however, the game was closer than it appears. In fact, it looked early on as if it would be a long day for the Crimson.

With a runner on first and one out in the top of the first, Hogan threw a 1-0 fastball straight into first baseman Aaron Meyer's wheelhouse. The freshman promptly cranked the pitch into right-center, where the wind blew it over the right-field fence for a two-run home run.

"I was a little too pumped up and was trying to throw the ball too hard," Hogan said. "I got the fastball up, and he just pushed it out into the wind-aided area."

Dartmouth would hit another homer, a solo shot in the fourth, but both would turn out to be mere tokens.

Harvard's hitters had senior hurler Scott Simon's number, as they put up three or more runs in every inning but the second.

"We were very aggressive early in the ball game and that set the tone for both teams," Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. "When we're running, we get them to throw more fastballs, and when we get more fastballs, our hitters are going to hit better."

The Crimson combined its trademark running game with three singles and an error to score three in the first and take a lead it would never relinquish.

Junior Brian Ralph started the rally with a bunt single. He hustled to third on a line single to center by junior Aaron Kessler. Both runners scored when junior Brett Vankoski's pop-up was dropped in short center by centerfielder Andrew Spencer.

Sophomore Hal Carey then singled and stole second to score Vankoski on the throw.

Harvard added three in the third and then blew it open in the fourth. An error--one of five in the game by the Big Green--sand-wiched between two walks, loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fourth for Vankoski.

The junior southpaw cranked the first pitch twenty feet over the right field fence for a grand slam to give the Crimson a 10-3 lead.

"It was a fastball a little in on the plate," said Vankoski, who scored three runs on the day. "I got a pitch that I could hit. I put a good swing on it, it just happened to leave the ballpark, and there just happened to be three guys on base."

Harvard struck for four more runs in the fifth, featuring a long two-run blast by Ralph, and added another four-spot the following inning. Ralph and captain Peter Albers each had three hits on the day.

Hogan was lifted in the fifth but still picked up the win.

"I was kind of off with my mechanics...but when you score 18 runs, it doesn't really matter," Hogan said.

Junior Mike Marcucci and sophomores Garrett Vail and Neil Magnuson combined to pitch the final two and one third scoreless innings.

Harvard 7, Dartmouth 6

The second game of yesterday's double-header was somewhat more difficult to win.

Although the Crimson drew first blood, scoring a run in the opening inning on an RBI single by Vankoski, the Big Green tallied the next four to take a three-run lead.

Harvard's starter, sophomore James Kalyvas, hit two batters in the third to put two on with two outs for freshman Brian Nickerson. The highly-touted shortstop parked the next pitch just to the right of the 370' sign in right field for a three-run home run.

But as has been their way this season, the Crimson bats struck back immediately.

"I thought in the second game we did a better job, because we were facing a two-pitch pitcher and that's tough to do," Walsh said.

Harvard scored four runs on five hits in the third to take a 5-4 lead. The final two runs of the inning scored on two out singles by sophomores Jason Keck and Todd Harris.

The Big Green re-took the lead with two unearned runs in the fourth. With runners on first and second, junior Bart Brush, in relief of Kalyvas, botched an attempted pickoff, throwing it out of the reach of the diving Albers. One run scored, and the runner from first made it to third, from whence he later scored on a sacrifice fly.

Harvard tied the game in its half of the fourth, and the score remained knotted until the sixth. After freshman Mike Giampaolo got the Crimson out of a jam in the top of the inning, Harvard struck in the bottom of the frame.

With two outs and two on, Albers hit a bouncer back to the mound that bounded off the leaping pitcher's glove for a run-scoring infield single.

The Big Green threatened in the top of the seventh, but Jamieson was able to shut it down with a little help from his defense. With one out and a runner on third, the infield was forced to play on the grass, leaving itself open to sharp grounders.

Simon, the batter, hit just that, but it was right to Forst, who gunned home to nick the runner trying to score.

"I was trying to strike him out, and I got the curveball up a little bit where he could hit it," Jamieson said. "But fortunately he hit it right at one of our guys. When you hit it to our shortstop, it's pretty much a sure out."

Giampaolo picked up the win, his second, and Jamieson notched his third save.

"We got a little bit of everything today--pitching, hitting, running, and most of all defense," Walsh said. "Anybody who's going to beat us is going to have to beat us with the bats, because we're not going to beat ourselves."

Notes

These same two teams meet today in Hanover for another twinbill. Harvard can clinch the division title outright with a split or better. Should the Crimson lose both games, however, it will play Yale in a one-game playoff to determine the division-winner: 25 wins marks Harvard's highest total since it tallied 29 victories in 1985. Simon pitched a complete game in the opener, yielding all of the Crimson's 18 runs and 17 hits. Joe O'Donnell '67, a former baseball and football letter-winner, threw out the first pitch after the field was given his name in a pre-game ceremony. Dartmouth  3 Harvard  18

Dartmouth  6 Harvard  7

Dartmouth  6 Harvard  7