Columbia Hands Crimson Nine Double N.Y. Defeat

The Harvard baseball team's bicentennial tour of the East coast ended in shambles Saturday, as coach Loyal Park's charges proved that Friday's Philadelphia disaster was no fluke by dropping a doubleheader 24 hours later to the suddenly-respectable Columbia Lions in New York City.

Thirty-three Columbia runs and the same amount of hits spelled out losses of 19-4 and 14-12 for the beleaguered Crimson squad, dropping Harvard to a 12-5 season record and leaving the team winless in three Eastern League outings.

Considering that the two teams played only 14 innings in total (collegiate twinbills involve two seven-inning games), Columbia's run count was imposing. The first game started innocently enough--two and a half innings of shutout ball--but the roof finally caved in on Harvard in the bottom of the third.

Crimson starter Tim Clifford breezed through the first two stanzas without relinquishing a hit, and picked up a strikeout starting the third. The Lions were just getting warmed up, though, and shortstop Barry Bauld began what was to be a Harvard nightmare with a single up the middle.

Two walks later, the bases were loaded and Columbia's Charlie Manzione ignited the eight-run outburst with a looping two-run double. Doubles, singles, and walks came next, making it 6-0. Exit Clifford, enter Mark Linehan.

No Difference

The Lions appeared undaunted by the pitching change, adding another run-scoring single and finally a booming triple by Bauld (one and the same) finished off the scoring in the wild and wooly third.

Dave Knoll, Harvard's weekend hitting star, cranked up his second homer in two days in the fourth, bringing in Tommy Joyce before him and slicing the Columbia lead to six runs, 8-2. That was the closest that the Crimson got, however, as the Lions padded, repadded, and overpadded their lead with outbursts in the bottom of the fourth, fifth, and sixth.

A Manzione triple keyed a three-run rally in the fourth, and Bauld (again) smacked a two-run double in the next frame in the midst of a six-run upheaval. Catcher Tom Paccico finished things off in the sixth with another two-run double, and calculators on the scene did the extensive arithmetic needed to keep track of the Lion runs. In the final analysis, it was Columbia 19, Harvard 4.

The second game of the doubleheader was a bit more difficult to lose, as the young Crimson team struck early to take a 3-0 lead.

A run-scoring single by Pete Bannish and a bases-loaded hit by Jim Peccerillo put the Crimson in front for the first and last time of the afternoon.

Tom Pura took the mound for Harvard in the bottom of the first, and six men later he was back on the bench. Columbia nailed the lefty for six consecutive hits to make the score 4-3, then picked on reliever Paul McOsker for two more hits and another marker before retiring for the inning.

A double by Paul Halas in the Harvard half of the second was followed by singles by Corby Saunders and Knoll, tying the score at 5-5, but the ever-potent Lions added two runs in their half of the inning, then tacked on four in the third and three in the fourth. Net result: A 14-5 Columbia lead.

The Crimson battled back with three in the fifth on the strength of a Joyce triple, and picked up two markers in both the sixth and the seventh, but it was not enough to salvage respect.

The string ran out when Columbia reliever Ricky Espinita whiffed Leon Goetz with the bases empty, putting an end to one of the worst afternoons in Harvard baseball history.

The Crimson, 1-3 after a successful Florida campaign, has some composure to regain before Tuesday's game with MIT.