ECAC Champ Maine to Host Batmen In NCAA Northeast Regional Tourney

Ranked first in New England with a glittering 27-4 record, the Harvard baseball team won't host this year's NCAA Northeast Regional Just like last year, the Crimson will travel to Orono, Maine for the Memorial Day weekend tourney.

What does ECAC champion Maine (30-17) have that EIBL titlist Harvard doesn't? Most important, to the NCAA at least, is a baseball stadium Mahaney Diamond drew more than 5000 paid spectators for last year's tournament. The Crimson's Soldiers Field location couldn't seat 500.

Harvard didn't even submit a bid for the site Maine's bid was the only one from the same area If Maine hadn't won the ECAC tourney yesterday, the Northeast Regional would have been held in the very heartland of New England South Carolina.

"If Maine didn't win it we'd have to go down there," said Dick Bergquidst, chairman of the NCAA baseball committee Because of that, he added yesterday. "I'm glad they won."

The Heartland

Joining Maine and Harvard will be Seton Hall and either Rider or Temple. The official announcement about teams, sites and seedings comes tomorrow, after Bergquidst, five other Division I coaches and NCAA liaison Jerry Miles grind out the details in a conference call. But unlike the basketball tourney, the baseball championship works primarily on geographic lines.

Thirty-six teams (25 conference champs and 11 at-large selections) will compete in eight regionals, with the winner of each advancing to the College World Series at Omaha. Neb Two of the regionals will have six entrants instead of four, but because Mahaney Diamond has no lights, the Northeast Regional can only be a four-team affair.

The Black Bears have a good deal more going for them than a stadium. Three easy victories in the ECAC tournament (7-3 over New Hampshire, 7-1 over Providence and 12-1 over Connecticut) extended Maine's winning streak to 12. The defending regional champs have the two top pitchers in the region senior Billy Swift and freshman Scott Morse.

Swift, the first pick on the second round of last year's pro draft, struck out 16 in a four-hitter against New Hampshire Friday. The next day Morse tossed a five-hitter against Providence.

Despite Maine's duo of top-rank hurlers, Crimson Captain Bruce Weller said yesterday it really didn't make any difference" which team won the ECAC. "The teams who get to the playoffs get there because of good pitching," he said, citing top-pitchers at Temple and Seton Hall as examples "You just can't expect to get that many runs."

For Harvard's pitching staff, that will be a new experience. The Crimson averaged just under 13 runs per game in its last seven regular-season outings.

The whole team will have to adjust to the crowd, never much of a factor in Harvard's regular-season games. "The fans are rabid." Crimson Coach Alex Nahigian said. "I like the idea of playing there because it gets the kids ready [for Omaha]," he added. But he admitted that, in a game against Maine, the hometown crowd would hurt the visitors. "The score's 1-0 before you start," he said.

How can you prepare your players for a rowdy crowd and the toughest pitching they've faced all year? "You don't want to have to tell them anything," Weller said. "They've been there before. They know what it takes."