Crimson Baseball Team Sweeps Tour, Takes Thirteen Games in Florida Trip

Charging undefeated through its spring tour, the Harvard baseball team returned from Florida last Saturday boasting a perfect 13-0 record.

Led by overpowering pitching that allowed only 11 earned runs in 13 games and impressive hitting, the Crimson defeated every team it played, even though most of them were half-way through their season.

The Crimson began its Florida tour by defeating Embry Riddle by the lop-sided scores of 19-0, 8-1, and 14-0, and continued its winning ways on April 2 downing Bethune Cookman twice, 10-2, and 14-0.

The Crimson had an easy time in four of the eight games. Florida Tech fell last Tuesday, 7-3, and Mike O'Malley shut out AIC the next day 1-0. The Crimson scored its only run in the third inning and held on with some strong defense to win.

The University of Tampa proved tough in the first game of a doubleheader last Thursday, staying close throughout before dropping a 3-2 decision. Later in the afternoon, however, the Spartans totally collapsed and were dumped, 6-0.

Harvard waltzed through the rest of its schedule by beating Florida Institute of Technology, 9-2, and 4-3, on April 5 and Tampa again last Saturday 18-6.

Super hitting by Hal Smith, Ed Durso, Kevin Hampe and Larry Barbiaux powered the Crimson through its tour. Left-fielder Smith got 14 hits and eight RBIs in 30 trips to the plate. Four of his hits were for extra bases--two doubles and two out of the park. Lead-off batter Durso socked 13 hits in 28 at bats for a blistering 464 average and got to first base eight times on free passes.

Barbiaux and Hampe provided solid hitting as Barbiaux garnered 11 hits in 29 trips and the team captain connected on 9 out of 29. Between them, they drove in 14 runs.

Strong pitching that saw every starter win twice also tallied five shutouts. Roz Brayton, Sandy Weissant, Don Driscoll, Barry Malinowski, Milt Holt and Mike O'Malley each posted a pair of wins on the tour. Norm Walsh won the remaining game. The pitching staff went an amazing five games before allowing an earned run.

Even more important than the team's Florida record, coach Loyal Park stressed, "We had a chance to play everyone on the roster, and everyone played really well."

"We went down there with the idea of trying everyone out and now I know who we will send against BC on Tuesday. Our only major change was to switch Jim Stoeckel to third and Barbiaux to second," he said.

"Daytona was super," Park added, "but now we are back to the meat and potatoes part of our schedule."

It was a rough night for Boston fans last night--the Bruins continued their losing ways at New York where the Rangers shut out the hapless Boston skaters 4-0 to take a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Meanwhile the Celtics lost their second in a row to Atlanta to even up that playoff series at two apiece.