Brown Twirls Crimson Nine Past UMass, 3-2

These are the kinds of games of which good teams are made.

And in case you weren't sure just how good a team the 1978 edition of Harvard baseball is, yesterday's come-from-behind 3-2 win over UMass at Soldier's Field could've been just the thing to convince you.

Low Voltage

And although the Crimson bats seemed to have left most of their voltage down in Sanford, Fla., for almost the entire game, the batsmen managed to bunch three of their four hits and all of their runs in the sixth inning.

The bunchmeister on this day was first baseman Mark Bingham, whose three-run homer to right field in the sixth pushed home all the runs that starter Larry Brown needed to buoy the victory.

Down 2-0 because of some opportunistic baserunning by the Minutemen, centerfielder Charlie Santos-Buch led off the inning with a long double to straightaway center. Leftfielder Mike Stenhouse moved Santos-Buch over to third with a single back up the box; and then three pitches later, Bing did his thing.

"I just wanted to hit it up the middle and get one, maybe two runs in. The pitch came in waist high and a little inside, a perfect pitch for me," Bingham said afterwards.

Floating

The ball scooted high to right field, motored by traditional Soldier's Field spring breezes, and came close to being Bingham's personal donation to the new indoor track facility.

Brown proceeded to dispatch the Minutemen with a series of ground balls and strikeouts over the final three innings, with only a mild threat by UMass coming in the eighth.

After Minuteman leftfielder Doug Aylward had singled to left and been sacrificed to second, first baseman Dale Stone came up with one out and drilled a line drive to center. Santos-Buch corralled the shot and proceeded to double up Aylward, who was then somewhere in the vicinity of the third base coaching box.

Brown pitched quite well, giving up eight hits and walking but one on his way to win number four and complete game number three already.

His style and strategy yesterday on the hill was different from the tactics which brought him success in Sanford. "I didn't have my good fastball out there. I was pacing myself because I wanted to make sure I could go nine innings. My curveball helped me out a lot," Brown said yesterday.

In spite of some of the "mental mistakes" and "lost concentration" on the mound that Brown admitted to, only one of the UMass runs was earned and both could have been prevented.

UMass got its first tally in the second. A one-out single by John Gallagher was the first hit of the ball game. Catcher Charlie Ciccone followed with a solid double down the right field line that Peter Bannish handled well, but his throw sailed over the first cutoff man's head and bounced in front of Bingham.

Gallagher was halfway home when Bingham got a hold of the ball. A good throw would have nailed the runner easily. Instead Bingham's errant throw was to the first base side of home and Gallagher slid in to make it 1-0.

In the fifth inning, after Brown had retired nine men in a row, UMass again strung base hits together for another run.

Push and Shove

Third baseman Leo Kalinowski shoved a single to right with one out and was driven home a couple of pitches later by number nine batter Mike Stockley's double down the left field line. Again, hesitation on the relay allowed the run to score.

"I wasn't really worried when we were down 2-0," Brown said, "I knew that with the kind of ball club we had we'd come back. My job was to hold UMass down the rest of the way."

Hold them down he did, and Bingham's timed explosion in the sixth was just the thing to make the Minutemen yell "uncle."

Yes, my friends, it really is baseball season.

THE NOTEBOOK: Coach Loyal Park was pleased with the squad's first northern outing of the year, and surprisingly not concerned with the Crimson's meager total of four hits in the contest. "They're a good ball club, and we were a little anxious about opening today. It's a natural thing," he said.

Ratings are sure to change after yesterday's tilt. Going in, Harvard was ranked ninth in New England, while UMass stood fifth.

Park said yesterday that he's not far from finalizing a deal that would enable the team to play some games in Italy after the season. The squad would leave around June 9 and play from two to three weeks in Pastaland.

The Crimson meets a club team from Boston University in a scrimmage doubleheader on Saturday. Park said he'll start Steve Baloff in the first game and probably use his whole staff. Yesterday's Box Score: UMASS  AB  R  H  RBI Skribiski, 2b  4  0  1  0 Aylward, lf  4  0  1  0 McEvilly, rf  3  0  0  0 Stone, 1b  3  0  0  0 Gallagher, dh  4  1  1  0 Ciccone, c  4  0  2  0 Lojek, cf  4  0  1  0 Kalinowski, 3b  4  1  1  0 Stockley, 2b  3  0  1  1 Totals:  33  2  8  1 HARVARD  AB  R  H  RBI Jenkins, dh  4  0  0  0 Santos-Bush, cf  4  1  1  0 Stenhouse, lf  4  1  1  0 Bingham, 1b  3  1  1  3 Halas, 2b  4  0  1  0 Bannish, rf  3  0  0  0 Pearce, 3b  2  0  0  0 St. John, ss  3  0  0  0 Wark, c  2  0  0  0 Totals:  29  3  4  3

        R  H  E UMASS(4-11)  010  001  000  2  8  3 HARVARD(9-0)  000  003  00x  3  4  1

Pitching  IP  H  ER  BB  SO H-Brown W(4-0)  9  8  1  1  5 UM-Nigro(L)  7  4  3  2  3 Tewhill  1  0  0  0  1

        R  H  E UMASS(4-11)  010  001  000  2  8  3 HARVARD(9-0)  000  003  00x  3  4  1

Pitching  IP  H  ER  BB  SO H-Brown W(4-0)  9  8  1  1  5 UM-Nigro(L)  7  4  3  2  3 Tewhill  1  0  0  0  1

Pitching  IP  H  ER  BB  SO H-Brown W(4-0)  9  8  1  1  5 UM-Nigro(L)  7  4  3  2  3 Tewhill  1  0  0  0  1