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Crimson Nine Splits Openers
Northeastern Takes Season's First Game,. 6-4, But Harvard Evens Doubleheader in Second
Any lingering doubts about the arrival of spring were erased yesterday when the Harvard baseball team finally took the field for its thrice-delayed season opener splitting a doubleheader against Northeastern at Soldiers Field.
In the opening game the Crimson nine recovered from a 3-0 deficit to take the lead in the fifth inning, only to falter 6-4. Harvard made sure of the second game however by jumping off to a 6-0 lead in the first inning and holding on for a satisfying 16-7 victory, its first of the young season.
Leading the Crimson's II-hit attack in the second game were Donny Allard and Brad Bauer, each with a home run, and Captain Pual Chicarello with a bases-clearing double. Husky hurlers Bill O'Leary, Chris Chaloff and Shawn Reilly aided the Harvard offense by issuing a total of nine free passes during the game.
Harvard starter Greg Brown lasted three innings before yielding to Brad Zlotnick, who picked up the win, and freshman Jeff Musselman enjoyed a successful debut by shutting our Northeastern in the final three frames.
The real story in the second game, though, was the Crimson bats that came alive to produce 16 runs. Lead-off man Tony DiCesare got things going for Harvard in the first with a single, center-fielder Bruce Weller followed with a walk and Bauer lined an RBI-single to right. Vince Martelli brought Weller home with a ground ball and Eddie Farrell made it 3-0 with another single.
That left Allard to deliver the knockout punch to Northeastern pitcher O'Leary, a two-run blast over the 340-foot sign in right field.
Before the Huskies could get three outs. Harvard sent 10 men to the plate, accumulating six runs of five hits. Chicarello's three-run double in the second and Bauer's two-run homer in the fourth provided the remaining key hits in a game where Harvard scored at last twice In every inning but one.
The Huskies began chipping away at the Crimson lead with a run in the second, two more in the third, and a big inning in the fourth owing to control problems suffered by Harvard's pitchers. Brown and reliever Brad Zlotnich combined to walk four of Northeastern's first five batters in the fourth, ultimately allowing four runs on just one hit.
The entrance into the game of Muscleman in the fifth ended the Crimson's pitching problems as well as the Huskies hopes of staging a comeback. The southpaw shut down Northeastern's offense the rest of the way yielding only two hits and no runs en route to picking up the first save of his Harvard career.
The Crimson had less success in the first game. Freshman hurler Charlie Marchese evidently a victim of opening day jitters loaded the bases with nobody out in the first and didn't escape until the Huskins had built a two run lead. Northeastern got to Marchese for another run in the third on two singles and a wild pitch but Harvard's Martelli evened the score with one swing in the bottom half of the inning driving a Brian O'rourke curve ball over the right field fence to score Weller and Bauter ahead of him.
martell gave Harvard the lead in the fifth with a clutch two out single to score Bauer from third but the rest of the game belonged to Northeastern.
The scrappy Huskies converted two singles into the trying in the sixth and then won the game with two more in the seventh. Mike Smerczynski came out of the bullpen for Harvard after Northeastern's Rick Sullivan led off the final inning with a double, but the Crimson reliever failed to put out the fire, allowing three hits and a walk before getting three outs.
Meanwhile, the Huskies O'Route kept the Harvard bats silent until only two outs away from victory. In a last-ditch effort the Crimson managed to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but Northeastern reliever Dave Seropiant induced Allard to ground out to second to end the game.
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