Harvard Dumps Huskies, 6-2, Clinches Tie For GBL Title

Well, the Wild Man. Donnie Allard, finally cooled to mortal temperatures, rapping just two singles in four trips yesterday and knocking home a lone run. And Harvard's other big bat. Vinnie Martelli's, managed just an RBI double in four at bats, although Northeastern's centerfielder. Mark Ferullo, robbed him of a probable inside-the-park homer, by snagging that smash on one hop with a dive on the Astroturf outfield.

Instead, the offense in yesterday's 6-2 Crimson victory at Northeastern was spread around, two hits and a run for centerfielder Bruce Weller, a single and sacrifice fly for Paul Scheper, two hits for Danny Skaff and a couple of third-inning errors by the Huskies helping Allard and Martelli carry the load.

Those errors, two-out miscues by first-cracker Gary Frechette and third baseman Bill O'Leary that sandwiched around Schepers's single, each scored a Crimson baserunner and helped the visitors take a 4-0 lead after three frames.

With big Greg Brown turning Huskie batters into extras in the Sandy Koufax story, the only drama after Harvard added two in the fifth was to see if the No-Hit Kid could repeat his performance of two weeks ago by blanking Northeastern.

He kept it up for seven innings, too, throwing hitless ball until Frank DePinto looped a single to left to open the eighth. And he did it without his best stuff, with a moving fastball and not much else. "I must have been doing something right." Brown said after the game, "but I didn't feel good."

The fielding behind him helped. Allard made a nice grab of a Gene Doucette liner in the first inning to save a hit, and second baseman Gaylord Lyman picked up a bouncer that had glanced off of Brown's glove, tagged a runner advancing from first and threw to Martelli for a sparkling double play to end the fifth.

The play of the day, however, belonged to Weller. With two out and nobody on in the sixth, and Brown's no hitter still a reality, the fleet flychaser ran halfway to Connecticut to flag down a Doucette liner to dead center. The ball probably traveled 400 feet, and Weller didn't get a great jump but ran and ran and finally caught up with it not far from the wall.

Northeastern finally touched Brown in the ninth, scoring two runs on a walk, single, sacrifice fly and double. The two-bagger sent the right-hander to the showers, and Alex Nahigian sent Brad Zlotnick in to close things up, which he did, earning his first save in the process.

The victory clinched at least a tie for the marginally important Greater Boston League championship with one game (home against Brandeis on Tuesday) left to play. Yes, it is a championship, but there is no post-season play involved, and beating individual teams like B.C. and Brandeis probably means more to the local batsmen than winning the league crown.

As far as post-season play goes, the best you can say is that the odds aren't good. Hey, Harvard is perfectly capable of sweeping Dartmouth this weekend and taking three from Army and Cornell next weekend, but unless Yale and Navy both lose two, it ain't gonna matter. And Yale and Navy just won't both lose two.

So the spotlight turns to the individual side of things, where a couple of heavy hitters--Allard and Martelli--have a chance to eclipse the four-year-old record for runs batted in in a season. Mike Stenhouse knocked home 40 in 1977, and Martelli and Allard, each blazing hot for the past few days, are tied with 30. Six games remain on the schedule, so they have a chance, although admittedly not a great one.

THE NOTEBOOK--Chuck Marshall is still sidelined with a bruised heel, and may not return until next weekend. at Northeastern HARVARD (6)  AS  R  H  BI Chicarello, dh  5  0  0  0 Weller, cf  4  1  2  0 Bauer, as  3  2  1  0 Marteill, 1b  4  2  1  1 Allard, rf  4  1  2  1 Scheper, lf  3  0  1  1 Skaff, 3b  4  0  2  0 Lyman, 2b  3  0  0  0 Wark, c  4  0  0  0 Totals  34  6  9  3 NORTHEASTERN (2) Ferullo, cf  3  1  0  0 Veronesel, 2b  4  0  0  0 Doucette, as  4  1  1  0 O'Leary, 3b  3  0  0  1 PaacareIII, c  2  0  1  1 Frechette, 1b  4  0  1  0 DePinto, dh  3  0  1  0 Carr, lf  2  0  0  0 Najjar, rf  3  0  0  0 Totals  36  2  4  2

HARVARD  202  020  000--6 NORTHEASTERN  000  000  002--2

  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO Brown (W, 3-2)  8 2/3  3  2  2  5  2 Zlotnick (5,1)  1/3  1  0  0  0  1 Dooley (L, 1-3)  4  8  6  4  2  1 Brickman  5  1  0  0  0  1

HARVARD  202  020  000--6 NORTHEASTERN  000  000  002--2

  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO Brown (W, 3-2)  8 2/3  3  2  2  5  2 Zlotnick (5,1)  1/3  1  0  0  0  1 Dooley (L, 1-3)  4  8  6  4  2  1 Brickman  5  1  0  0  0  1

  IP  H  R  ER  BB  SO Brown (W, 3-2)  8 2/3  3  2  2  5  2 Zlotnick (5,1)  1/3  1  0  0  0  1 Dooley (L, 1-3)  4  8  6  4  2  1 Brickman  5  1  0  0  0  1