Crimson Batmen Head for Omaha, World Series

As the Harvard baseball team was beginning the "regular" season there were a few pessimists who enjoyed bad-mouthing the Crimson's 13-0 record compiled during the spring Florida trip. Detractors such as Penn coach Bob Seddon weren't impressed by the likes of Embry Riddle Aeronautic Institute, Bethune Cookman and Florida Institute of Technology. Anyone could beat those jokers, they said.

"13-0, that's a joke," Seddon said the day before his young Quaker squad edged the Crimson 3-2 in Harvard's first game north of the Mason Dixon Line, "Harvard will be hearing a lot about that during the year." Penn figured it would get the last laugh by beating Harvard in the all important Eastern League, and play in the NCAA District I tourney.

But while Seddon's boys, runners-up in the league to the Crimson, are packing their troubles and going their separate ways from the City of Brotherly Love, the Harvard team will be packing for Omaha and the College World Series.

The Crimson earned the trip by sweeping UMass, Northeastern and Providence College last weekend to win the NCAA district title. Harvard downed UMass Friday, 4-2, Northeastern on Saturday, 11-1, and dropped Providence in the final game of the double elimination tournament by an 8-1 count on Sunday.

And despite what people have said about the Florida trip, it was a definite indicator of what was to come during the northern half of the season. For one, you don't win 13 straight games in a mere eight days without pitching depth, no matter who the competition is. It was Harvard's pitching strength that carried the team to a 34-3 regular season and it showed through again in the NCAAs.

Groping Around

While the other opponents were groping for decent starters to follow up the staff aces, Harvard had no problems coming up with three outstanding pitchers in Roz Brayton, Don Driscoll and Mike O'Malley, along with a little relief help from Norm Walsh. Who else but Harvard could throw a man, O'Malley, on the mound in the team's third game in as many days who has a perfect 6-0 record and an ERA under one?

The Crimson didn't even need to use the likes of Sandy Weissant, Barry Malinowsky, Milt Holt, Tom O'Neill and Keith Schappert, any of whom are better than some of the stiffs the other teams had to go with.

On the offensive side of things there was Hal Smith. Smith went 14 for 30 in Florida, with a pair of doubles and two homers. Last weekend Hal blazed through the tournament with eight hits in 13 at bats. He drove in nine runs, including the game winners against UMass and Northeastern and the tying run in the finale with the Friars--not bad production.

Smith began his exploits in Friday's game with UMass at Fenway Park. The Minutemen jumped on Brayton in the first for a pair of runs on a double by UMass ace pitcher Mike Flanagan and a run producing single off the bat of Mike Koperniak. It looked bleak indeed until the fourth when, with Joe Sciolla on first, Jimmy Stoeckel blasted a shot over the famous Green Monster guarding Fenway's left field and indeed all the way across the street behind the park to tie the game.

Brayton settled down to allow only two more hits after the first, while striking out six. It was up to the batters to win the game and it was Smith who came through in the clutch. With the bases loaded in the eighth on Sciolla's third hit and a pair of walks to Stoeckel and Leigh Hogan, Smith rapped a three and two pitch into center for the winning two runs.

The second contest, played at 10 a.m. Saturday so that seven of the Crimson players could take an Economics exam in the afternoon, wasn't quite as exciting as the first. The Huskies were wallopped, 11-1, and despite their win over the Friars in Friday's game, there was a certain amount of wonderment as to how Northeastern got into the tournament in the first place. The Huskies had a mediocre 13-6-1 going in, and five of the six losses came at the hands of UMass, Providence and Harvard.

Hit Barrage

The Crimson unloaded a 15 hit barrage on starter George Greenwhich, who lost to Harvard earlier in the season, and reliever Mark Krentzman. Hal Smith had four of those hits in five at bats and drove in four runs.

Harvard came up with three runs in the first, as Stoeckel, Smith and Ric LaCivita, who returned from a knee injury to play a solid second base, each had RBIs. Smith drove in the fourth run in the third and Rich Bridich made it five in the fourth with a solo blast that carried into the Fenway's left field nets.

Sciolla and Smith each drove in a run in the fifth and Hal picked up his fourth run-batted-in in the seventh. Bridich also had a hit in that inning, a double that brought home two more runs. Pinch hitter Dan Williams made it 11 with a single in the eighth.

LaCivita wasn't the only one to return from the disabled list to contribute to Harvard's charge to Omaha. Don Driscoll came back from an ankle injury to get his first start since April 21. Driscoll pitched a neat four hitter against the Huskies, the only run coming in the third on an RBI single by Joe Porcello.

The action moved to Soldiers Field for the final contest on Sunday. Providence, who had to win a pair of games Saturday to get into the finals, faced the task of having to beat Harvard twice the following day to win the title. Not an enviable task. The Crimson needed to win just one and managed that easily with an 8-1 victory.

The Friars threatened with their only run in the second, as starter O'Malley gave up a hit to George Mello, a walk to Larry Thomas and an RBI single to Bob Dembek. But that was all Providence would get, as O'Malley and Norm Walsh, who came on in the eighth to get the final two outs of the inning, held the Friars' bats in check.

It was Smith who tied the game in the bottom of the second with his fourth homer of the season to lead off the inning. Providence starter Jim McGeough was clearly shaken after giving up the meat ball to Smith and proceeded to walk LaCivita and Bridich and then gave up the winning runs on a pair of wild pitches that scored Bridich and Ed Durso, who had reached on a fielder's choice.

Bridich banged in another two runs with a single in the third and Smith made it 7-1 in the seventh with a two-run homer that came exactly two hours after his first of the game. The final run crossed the plate in the eighth as Durso scored' on Stoeckel's grounder to third.

Bat Girls

So the champagne popped open in the Harvard locker and the Friars with their distracting bat-persons (female) had to take the two hour bus ride back to Providence, thinking maybe next year. Harvard fans will see their coach, Alex Nahigian, again though, as he will be here next Fall to assist Joe Restic. After the grid campaign however he returns to the Rhode Island capital to prepare the Friar baseball squad for another shot at the series.

Coach Loyal Park had praise for the whole team after the win. "I think our overall balance was what impressed people most," he said yesterday. "Any time you can go into a double elimination tournament using just four pitchers and come out with two complete games, you've got to be deep."

The team leaves for Omaha on June 7 and will play the fourth game of the World Series against the winner of this weekend's NCAA District VIII playoff. The favorite to win in the West is USC.

So while the detracters who joked about the Florida trip have been munching on their words, Harvard has been proving itself the best ball club in the Northeast. Now there are probably those out west who say that the calibre of competition in the east doesn't measure up to western standards, much as Embry Riddle didn't measure up to Bob Seddon's. The Crimson squad better bring some salt to Omaha for those people, it'll make their words go down a lot easier