Opponents On Vacation, Batsmen Romp

No wonder everybody wants to go down to Florida. Life is easy down there. And so is baseball, or maybe it just appears that way, when you look at the Harvard baseball team's successful sojourn in Sunshine Land.

Coach Loyal Park wanted to start his 11th season off on the right foot, and his team responded by stomping on four opponents for eight straight wins in the round-robin tournament held in Sanford, Florida.

Last Monday the Crimson started its win streak with a 14-3 drubbing of West Virginia Wesleyan and a 14-4 waxing of Wisconsin-Superior. In the first game a nine-run third inning and errorless play helped Ron Steward to a complete game triumph.

In game two Dave Singleton's leadoff homer opened the floodgates for four additional Harvard round-trippers. Larry Brown went the route, fanning nine and yielding only two carned runs.

Lucky Seven

Tuesday was Lucky Seven Day, as the Crimson rolled on to a 7-3 win over Cortland State and a 7-0 whitewash of Anderson College.

In the Cortland game a four-run fifth inning broke open a 3-3 deadlock. Highlighting the Harvard surge was outfielder Billy Blood's second four-bagger in as many days. Paul McOsker was the winning pitcher, hurling the team's third straight complete game.

The Anderson tilt was a showcase for righthander Steve Baloff. Baloff spun a two-hit shutout and struck out ten in his seven innings. All the runs he needed came on Mike Stenhouse's three-run homer.

The beat went on Wednesday, as the batmen topped West Virginia Wesleyan 7-2 and Wisconsin-Superior 6-1. The team had a 6-0 lead against West Virginia by the third, as Jamie Werly threw strong for five innings before yielding to Peter Bannish, who hurled the last two. Third baseman Rick Pearce knocked in three runs, while Paul Halas went three for four. In the second game, Stewart and Brown combined to toss a five-hitter with ten k's.

Round Robin

The final bay of the round robin belonged to freshman Rob Alevisos. The yardling hurler saved both games that day, a 9-3 win over Cortland St. and a 2-0 nipping of Anderson.

The Cortland St. contest was only a five-inning affair, and a Mark Bingham homerun in the Crimson's four-run fifth was the deadly blow. Alevisos came on for McOsker in the fifth with the score 5-3 to shut the door without yielding a run.

The Crimson left Sanford in style with a strong defensive performance in the Anderson game. With two men on in the seventh and one out Alevisos came in for Tim Clifford and promptly forced a 4-6-3 double-play to end the ballgame.

Harvard had scored twice in the first, on a double by Halas, a single by Stenhouse, and a three-base error by Anderson's third baseman.

Minor League

In the squad's three exhibition games down South, Harvard tied and lost to the Red Sox minor leaguers, 2-2 and 3-2, and was blanked by the Twins farmhands 7-0.

First baseman Bingham led all Harvard batters during the round robin with a .500 average, seven rbi's, and three doubles. Halas, playing with an injured hand, hit .438 and prompted Coach Park to remark that "He's got to be in there starting someplace." Second sacker Stenhouse drove in seven runs and hit .381 despite some shaky fielding.

The Crimson staff featured four pitchers who did not give up an earned run down South (Alevisos, Baloff, McOsker and Clifford). In addition, Stewart led all chuckers with 15 strikeouts.

Park feels he's pretty solid on the mound with Brown, Stewart, McOsker, Clifford and Baloff as his starters and Alevisos as his main man out of the bullpen. Stewart is set to hurl today's Greater Boston League opener at Boston College.

At the moment Park is impressed but cautious with the play of his young team. "Our defensive infield and our base running are our strengths right now. Overall, we're as far along as I thought we'd be, but we've got a long way to go. It's gonna take a lot of patience."