Playoff Prattle

Thirty-two games after its season-opening flight to Florida, the Harvard baseball team has earned itself the opportunity to start again.

Friday, the Crimson launches its second season when it battles Atlantic 10 champion Temple in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Northeast Regional at Orono, Maine. Harvard's 25-6-1 overall record and its 12th-ever Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League title will count for nothing in the double-elimination tourney.

No Imposition

Regular-season figures should provide some indication of the batsmen's chances. Temple and Harvard played three common opponents: South Florida, Rhode Island and Princeton. The Owls swept Rhode Island, split with Princeton and dropped a pair to South Florida, while the Crimson lost to Rhode Island, split with Princeton and swept South Florida. So who's going to win? Who knows?

Temple leads hands down in post-season experience, with five playoff appearances in the last eight years to Harvard's two. But all that experience hasn't helped the Owls much, as they last won the regional in 1977.

Both teams enter the playoffs with strong pitching staffs, and Harvard's is so balanced that each of the four starters has served as the staff ace at one time or another. Sophomore right hander Charlie Marchese is the hottest entering the playoffs, with 16 strikeouts in two clutch performance against Dartmouth and Navy.

Captain Brad Bauer says it is pitching that brought Harvard the league championship. "If they keep us in the ballgame for a couple of innings, we're gonna win it," he explains. That's because one of the greatest line ups in Crimson history backs up Harvard's pitchers.

Leading the way are all-Greater Boston League selections Vinnie Martelli (.429 batting average, 37 RBIs), Don Allard (.367, 16 doubles), Llliott Rivera (.330, 18 sacrifices) and Ed Farrell (.323, eight house runs).

"Our hitting is obviously one of our key strengths," says Crimson Coach Alex Nahigian.

In Florida, Nahigian told his team that it was the best he had coached in his 24-year career. How good is that?

Says Nahigian, "We feel we can be successful in this tournament; we can win it."