Holy Cross Touchdowns Embarrass Batmen, 21-4

No one can accuse the Crimson batmen of not taking their holidays seriously. Playing against Holy Cross in Worcester yesterday afternoon, they did their best New England Patriot imitations, and as a result, fell to the Crusaders by two touchdowns and then some.

If the final score of 21-4 sounds outrageous, that's because it is. Sure, Jim Plunkett took the offense out west with him, but how does that explain the seven defensive miscues which the team committed?

Actually, the game wasn't as much of a rout as the final score indicates, at least for the first two and one half innings. Harvard even led at one point, 1-0, after the top of the first, thanks to a Dave Singleton walk and a Dave Knoll triple.

But then Holy Cross came to bat and quickly scored four runs before Crimson starter Jamie Werly felt the first drop of sweat on his brow.

In Harvard's third, however, Kevin Carr tripled, scored on a single by Singleton, and then watched a two-run homer by Paul Halas tie the game. For the last time.

The Crimson then committed its biggest miscue of the afternoon--it continued playing. Two Crusader runs in the third signaled the end for Werly, three more in the fourth made it 9-4, a pair in the fifth made the game a rout, and there was still a touchdown and a field goal to go.

Holy Cross would not register a goose egg for the rest of the game, as six Harvard pitchers had as much luck in retiring the side as they had in minimizing their now astronomical ERI (as in Earned Run per Inning).

On the positive side, Leon Goetz had three hits (the team had 12), and Larry Brown, the third Crimson hurler, did work loose from a sixth-inning jam. If he hadn't, the Crusaders might have won by three touchdowns. So much for being patriotic.