Brown's One-Hitter Railroads MIT Engineers, 5-0

It's something new and something different every game, but it's always the same people, and for now, always the Harvard baseball team.

Yesterday's 5-0 shutout over MIT featured the same timely offense plus solid pitching as the squad's first Northern win over UMass a week ago, but with a little more sock, and a tad more finesse on the mound.

Enter hero number one: pitcher Larry Brown. The junior workhouse handcuffed the Engineers with a one-hit, ten-strikeout job for his fifth straight win of the season. It was a performance much like Brown himself: easy-going, and a little crazy.

Easy-going because the MIT hitters were guessing all day at the plate, and guessing wrong. Crazy because, well, what else can you call a one-hitter where the only hit is a first-inning bunt single?

Heroic

Heroes two and three were incumbents Mike Stenhouse and Mark Bingham, who each donated solo homers to Brown's crusade.

Stenhouse's blast led off the top of the eighth, believe it or not, and broke a then scoreless tie. It was a typical Stenhouse four-bagger, a right field bound tee shot off a fastball that was asking for it.

The Bingham roundtripper, his second in two games, was a little less influential than his three-run poke against UMass (it came in the ninth to make the score 5-0), but not without a certain amount of clout, as it finally came to roost about twenty feet past the right field snow fence at Briggs Field.

Funny thing, though, until the eighth inning there were no heroes, only Brown and eight freezing guys playing behind him. Sure, Larry was throwing a one-hitter, but the batsmen had only managed two hits through the first seven frames themselves (singles by Stenhouse and Steve Joyce), and had blown their only scoring chance when Paul Halas lined out with the bases loaded in the third.

Then, after Stenhouse had made it 1-0, rightfielder Jim Peccerillo walked with one out and was replaced by pinch runner Danny Bowles. Bowles went to third on Halas's single up the middle, and came sliding home under a high throw when MIT second baseman Jeff Felton tried to make a play on him at the plate on Bobby Jenkins's chopper.

Halas and Jenkins moved up to second and third on a passed ball, and then a Burke St. John line drive base hit over shortstop drove them in with runs number three and four.

Brown worked his craft in the eighth and ninth with ease, dispatching the side in order on both occasions. In fact, it was that way all day, as between the bunt and a seventh inning walk to Eric Steinhagen, Brown set down 18 men in a row.

So now it's a 10-0 slate with semi-mighty B.C. scheduled for a 3 p.m. affair today at Soldiers Field. Brown won't be pitching, so some new heroes will have to be found. With the way the batsmen are playing, they shouldn't be too hard to come by.

THE NOTEBOOK: Coach Loyal Park will start sophomore righthander Ron Stewart against B.C. this afternoon. Stewart, who twirled nine strikeouts in an 11-2 thrashing of the Eagles last April, will be opposed by B.C. ace George Razinas. The tilt should adequately prepare the Crimson for its Eastern League opener on Saturday, a double-header with Dartmouth.

Pre-game hijinx at chilly MIT were particularly spectacular yesterday. Shortstop Burke St. John demonstrated some juggling ability of Harvard Square kiosk quality, while lanky Steve Baloff's ability to balance a fungo bat on his nose is a gift that few others can claim. Yesterday's Box Score HARVARD  AB  R  H  RBI Pearce, 3b  3  0  0  0 Santos-Buch, cf  4  0  0  0 Bannish, cf  1  0  0  0 Stenhouse, If  4  1  2  1 Bingham, 1b  4  1  1  1 Peccerillo, rf  2  0  0  0 Bowles, pr  0  1  0  0 Blood, rf  1  0  0  0 Halas, 2b  4  1  1  0 Kelley, 2b  0  0  0  0 Jenkins, dh  4  0  0  1 St. John, ss  3  1  1  2 Joyce, c  2  0  1  0 Totals  32  5  6  5 MIT           S. Gavernick, cf  4  0  0  0 Felton, 2b  4  0  1  0 Steinhagen, 1b-p  2  0  0  0 Kracunas, c  3  0  0  0 Nowlszewski, rf  3  0  0  0 Olson, p-1b  3  0  0  0 Noll, 3b  3  0  0  0 Lavoie, If  3  0  0  0 Gaernick, ss  3  0  0  0 Totals  28  0  1  0

E-Olson, SB-Pearce, Stenhouse, Halas,

Steinhagen. DP- MIT 1. HR- Stenhouse,

Bingham. PB-Kracunas.

Pitching Brown (W 5-0)  123  456  789  R  H  E   HARVARD (10-0)  000  000  041  5  6  0 Olson (L) MIT  000  000  000  0  1  1

E-Olson, SB-Pearce, Stenhouse, Halas,

Steinhagen. DP- MIT 1. HR- Stenhouse,

Bingham. PB-Kracunas.

Pitching Brown (W 5-0)  123  456  789  R  H  E   HARVARD (10-0)  000  000  041  5  6  0 Olson (L) MIT  000  000  000  0  1  1