Harvard Nine Topples Crusaders Squad, 10-5

The Harvard baseball team clobbered NCAA-bound Holy Cross 10-5 at Splinter Stadium Saturday, casting further doubt on the decision which left the Crimson out of the New England regional playoffs.

Harvard slashed three Crusader pitchers for 13 hits, including Carter Lord's second home run of the season -- a mammoth 400-foot drive to right center field in the third inning.

Lord's presence even when he missed the ball gave senior southpaw Jim McKinley a Candlish a comfortable cushion for most of the game. McCandlish surrendered seven hits, walked seven and struck out eight, befuddling Holy Cross with his assortment of junk.

In the first inning, Harvard jumped on Crusader ace Bill Conlon for three tainted runs. Third baseman Bill Cobb beat out an infield hit, Phil Smith reached safely on the first of nine Holy Cross errors and Dan Hootstein singled to bring in Cobb.

Fan Blast

Center fielder Lord then struck out swinging, but got to first when the wildly-thrown third strike got past the catcher. Smith jogged in from third on the wild pitch with Harvard's second run. After a slick doubleplay, Pete Karegeannes rescued Hootstein with a sharp single for the third run.

While McCandlish zeroed the Crusaders through the first four frames, the Crimson added single tallies inning by inning.

In the second, Dich Manchester's single, McCandlish's sacrifice and Cobb's fly ball got run one. Lord's homer followed in the third and a combination of a walk to Cobb, singles by Hootstein and Joe O'Donnell and another Holy Cross error brought the score to 6-0 at the end of the fourth.

The Crusaders struck back with one run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to narrow the lead to 6-4.

Sewed Up

But in the bottom of the sixth Lord drilled a double to right-center to drive in shortstop Smith who had walked and gone to second on an error.

And, one inning later, three more Harvard markers sewed up the contest. Jeff Hall walked and the Holy Cross catcher threw late to second on Manchester's sacrifice attempt.

A couple of errors and Lord's third hit -- and third and fourth RBI's -- finished off the Crusaders, although they managed a final run in the top of the ninth.

The Family Day crowd got more than runs galore for their money. Harvard chipped in four miscues, bringing the game total to 13. Harvard captain Joe O'Donnell pulled off Harvard's third hidden ball trick of the season to help bail McCandlish out of an early jam, and the base umpire got hit in the shoulder by a line drive. Everyone agreed that he was just part of the field.

Harvard plays its last game of the season against Boston University here tomorrow. HARVARD   ab  h  r  rbi Cobb 3b  3  1  3  1 Smith ss  3  1  2  0 Hootstein rf  5  2  1  1 Lord cf  5  3  1  4 O'Donnell c  5  2  0  1 Karageannes lf  5  1  0  1 Hall c  4  0  0  0 Manchester 2b  4  3  2  0 McCandlish p  4  0  1  0