Crimson Nine Nips Huskies

The Harvard baseball team tried to find out how good it really is yesterday at Northeastern's Parsons Field but could only stand by and watch as the Huskies self-destructed and handed the Crimson a 5-4 win.

That Harvard played a fine ballgame seemed unimportant, for few teams could have lost to Northeastern yesterday. Philanthropic hurlers Norman Michaud and Shawn Brickman walked ten batters, including at least one every inning, while their infielders played dodgeball with each other's throws.

The Crimson punched out eight hits--all singles--and twice pushed across tallies without safeties as the Huskies vainly battled mathematics: some of the 21 baserunners they allowed had to score.

As it has in every game since coming north, the Crimson pitching staff came through with a fine performance. This time, Billy Doyie combined his excellent curveball with fine control to hold the Huskies to six hits over eight and two-thirds innings, and Rob Alevizos came on to whiff Husky Bob Murray for the final out.

A.L. Ump

"The umpire was calling the high strike, and I guess you could say I'm a low-ball pitcher, so I had a little trouble," Doyle said after the game.

What the hard-throwing freshman didn't mention was how he calmly worked his way out of the trouble, mixing his pitches to force easy groundouts and pop-ups.

Northeastern did rap out a homer, two triples and a double, but the latter three require an explanation. Unaccustomed to playing on Parsons Field's bizarre half-grass, half-astroturf outfield, Crimson gardeners Chalie Santos-Buch and Paul Scheper misjudged high-bouncing base hits and the Huskies picked up two of their four runs as a result.

All Alone

The other two came on Murray's solo blast that opened the sixth inning and a ground single off Alevizos by Pat Barry which plated Ron Valeri in the ninth. Otherwise, Northeastern's bats seemed content to sedately chop grounders to Harvard thirdsacker Rick Pearce, who handled eight chances with his usual flawless precision.

On the offensive side, Brad Bauer and Mark Bingham each rapped out two singles, but most bats stayed on nearby shoulders as Harvard patiently waited out Michaud and Brickman and then trotted down to first.

Crimson designated hitter Eddie Farrell knocked in the game's initial run, with a sacrifice fly in the third.

Continuing the passive onslaught, Pearce walked with one out in the top of the fourth, then moved on to third when a sure double-play ball ended up--via secondsacker Valeri--in right field. He put the visitors up by two on Bobby Kelley's deep fly to center shortly after.

The third and fourth runs were similar combinations of walks and errors, and pinchrunner Danny Bowles scored the eventual gamewinner in the ninth when Joe Wark's sacrifice fly followed a walk, sacrifice bunt and infield error to put Harvard's fourth unearned run on the scoreboard.

Alevizos, who came on with one on and two out in the ninth to preserve the victory, became the first Crimson reliever to see action since the team came north. The righthander appears to have conquered his arm trouble, although a one-out stint may not be indicative.

THE NOTEBOOK: Jim Keyte takes the mound this afternoon as the Crimson travels to MIT for a 3 p.m. contest with the Engineers...The pitcher for Wednesday's home opener with Boston College is still unknown, and Nahigian may let two or three hurlers split the duty.