Did Harvard Really Belong in NCAA's?

OMAHA, NEB., June 12--The Harvard baseball team flew home yesterday after an all too brief three-day stay at the NCAA College World Series, and the half-formed question had to be, Did Harvard belong here at all?

Despite the Crimson's rapid elimination, and its powder-puff offense which could only produce one run in two games, the answer is yes. Harvard cannot hope in the near future to field a team as strong as the tournament's best, but in losing, 2-0, to St. John's and, 2-1, to Southern Illinois the Crimson made a respectable showing; according to one veteran sports-writer, the best by a New England team in years.

The Omaha tournament has an aura of big-time college sports. There are athletic power houses here like Southern California, which it is hard to imagine Harvard playing in any sport, especially one so basic as baseball. Scouts from every major-league team are scattered through the box seats filling out elaborate form charts for each game.

Traditionally the best baseball in the country is played in the Southwest and West--U.S.C. has won four championships and been runner-up once, and Oklahoma State is at the tournament for the third year in a row.

By chance, this year's draw bunched all these teams together and matched teams from the East, South and Midwest in the other bracket. If Harvard had won Tuesday it would have had to face one of the Western teams--probably a hard-hitting Brigham Young squad that narrowly lost to U.S.C.

The best team doesn't always win here (just as in the major league world series), but by bowing out early Harvard missed the end of the week games which are the real test of a team's strength.

Baseball games are not as predictable as those in football or basketball (no team here has a winning percentage better than .750), and so the tournament is run on a gruelling double-elimination basis. The winner must play five games in six days and sometimes a sixth on a day of rest and that requires a deep as well as talented pitching staff. U.S.C., accordingly, is the favorite here with four pitchers who have won either nine or ten games this year.

Harvard's pitching staff might not have held out under this pressure, but in two games it was one of the most impressive at the tournament. Ray Peters, Bob Dorwart and Bob Lincoln gave up only one walk between them in 20-innings, and didnt's throw a wild pitch. They set down opposing batters easily, being touched for just four runs in the two games.

Though the Crimson committed a couple of egregious blunders, notably a dropped fly which cost them a victory Tuesday, Harvard fielding was for the most part sharp and the team never lost its poise.