Harvard Splits Pair Loses League Lead

PROVIDENCE--For the second Saturday in a row, the Harvard baseball team split a doubleheader it should have swept. After overwhelming Brown, 10-2, in the first game, the Crimson nine let the mediocre Bruins catch them napping in the nightcap and blew a 2-1 lead to lose, 3-2.

The loss, coupled with Cornell's two victories over Army, means Harvard no longer occupies the first place spot it had held since Eastern League play opened 11 games ago.

It also means that when the Big Red machine rolls into Soldiers Field a week from Friday, Harvard will have to stop it, and--more importantly--when Army cruises by for a pair the next day the Crimson will have to sweep.

If Harvard plays those three games the way it played during Saturday's opener, coach Alex Nahigian has nothing to fear. Behind the four-hit pitching of Rob Alevizos, the Crimson pounded out thirteen hits, fielded flawlessly, and demonstrated that Friday's 9-0 loss to Yale must have merely been a case of a slippery field, a hot pitcher, and a few seeing-eye grounders.

Led by Brad Bauer and Charlie Santos-Buch, who rapped out four hits apiece, the Crimson vented its frustration over Friday's whitewash on the poor, trembling Bruin hurlers.

Bauer set an example for his mates when he rocketed Joe Craven's second pitch of the game a long way over the 18-foot chain-link fence in left. They imitated well: Santos-Buch four hits, two RBIs; Mark Bingham two hits, two walks, three RBIs and two runs, Bobby Kelley two RBIs, Billy Blood two RBIs and so on.

Simultaneously, Alevizos made his first start of the campaign a sterling one, allowing only six baserunners and fanning four while improving his record to 3-0.

But the second game--the one they really wanted, the one they really needed, got away. With two outs in the fourth and the Bruins ahead, 1-0, Kelley laced a single to left, scoring Santos-Buch and Rick Pearce to give the Crimson a one-run lead.

With freshman hurler Bill Larson throwing well, Harvard merely had to sit tight and hold on for the crucial sweep. They couldn't.

Number nine hitter K.C. Jones opened the bottom of the fifth with a single, and when Loren Kleinman tried to sacrifice Jones to second and Rick Pearce threw low to second Jones moved into scoring position.

Jones and Kleinman moved into an even more comfortable position--a seat in the jubilant Bruin dugout--when rotund Jay Hickey lashed a base hit into center, knocking two runs in and Harvard out of first place.