Penn Nails Harvard Nine With Early-Inning Attack

It was all over after two innings. With Pennsylvania leading 9-0 in the second and on its way to an 11-3 victory, Harvard's baseball team had little to do yesterday in Philadelphia but wonder how it was going to fare in today's doubleheader against surprisingly strong Columbia.

The Quakers, leaders in the EIBL with a 4-0 mark, did not have to break out their big bats in building up the lopsided early bulge. Crimson pitcher Jamie Werly dug his own grave with a slew of walks and wild pitches sandwiched around a few Pennsylvania hits, as Harvard dropped its first league game of the season.

After the Crimson batters went down quietly in the first, Penn went right to work, loading the bases in the bottom half of the inning on a single and two walks.

A Werly pick-off throw to second then found its unkind way into the outfield, and the hometowners were in front, 2-0. Next on the agenda was a wild pitch by Werly, and the count went to 3-0. Two more walks later, Penn was on the verge of making it a first-inning blowout, but Werly wriggled free. Temporarily.

The next inning was worse, at least from Harvard's standpoint, as six more Quakers paraded across the plate. The rout was on.

A single, a Dave Singleton error, and--you guessed it--a walk loaded the bases, and it was at that point Penn decided to start doing some work of its own. A sacrifice fly brought in run number four, and a single by the hitting star of the day, first baseman Rick Yost (a triple and a homer yet to come) made it 5-0.

Werly's last walk of the day, delivered to the next-to-last man he faced, filled the bags one last time, and Dave Greenfield then cleared the bases with a three-run triple. Eight to nothing, and a farewell to Harvard's beleaguered starter.

Reliever Larry Brown settled down after relinquishing a run-scoring single that ran the count to 9-0, pitching the rest of the game and allowing just two runs.

Yost touched him for a triple in the fourth, scoring on Phil Kornbluth's single, and came back in the eighth to crack a mammoth home run and close out the day's scoring.

The Harvard highlight of the day was a two-run homer by Dave Knoll in the fourth, but Penn wiped out the Crimson's get-back-in-the-game rally in that stanza with a crucial double play.

Harvard next plays Columbia, 3-0 in the EIBL, today in New York City.