Batmen Take Third At N.E. Regional

"It was shocking. All your life just went out at that moment. It's just a knockout punch." --Harvard Captain Bruce Weller

ORONO, Maine--All year long the Harvard baseball team came back to win the big games, like the 6-5, 11-inning thriller at Yale April 29. Down 6-3 after five innings of the first NCAA Northeast Regional game May 25, the Crimson rebounded to score a 10-8 upset over second-seeded Seton Hall.

Then it was top seed Maine, the host of the regional and three-time defending champions. Then it was All-American Billy Swifton the mound, who entered the game with a 0.52 ERA and had struck out 16 in his last appearance. And it looked like the Crimson had done it again.

Trailing 3-0 after three innings and 4-1 after four. Harvard put together a three-run fifth to tie the score. With two down and the bases filled, junior Elliott Rivera singled to center. The ball slipped past center fielder Rich Lashua, and freshman Jim DePalo scored from first. Rivera finished the year with a school record 44 RBI.

For the next five innings and two rain delays (45 minutes, total), the score stayed 4-4. Junior Jeff Musselman shut out the Black Bears, while Swift stymied the Crimson.

Musselman had been successful against Maine in the 1983 NCAA contest, but a popped blister on his throwing hand forced him out of that game with one on and alone out in the seventh. The score was 1-1 when Musselman left, Harvard lost, 6-2.

History almost repeated itself this year in the Maine fifth, when Musselman limped off the mound. "I thought I'd hurt my groin muscle," he said later. "I heard something snap." Fortunately, nothing was wrong and he stayed is the game. What was he thinking?

"I remembered last year from the day it was over," Musselman said. "There was no way I was coming out of the game [today], even if I was hurt. I've been dreaming about this day for a year."

Despite Musselman's great finish and Swift's 17 strikeouts, neither had anything to do with the outcome. A mixture of rain and darkness stopped the game at 7:26 p.m. after 9 1/2 innings of rugged baseball. Neither coach was happy.

Despite a sky so dark the players needed headlights, the umpires forced Harvard to bat in the top of the 10th. "They shouldn't have started the goddamn inning." Crimson Coach Alex Nahigian said. "We had to bat in the dark," he added, pointing out that Maine would have daylight for its half of the 10th.

But Maine Coach John Winkin didn't smile either. Nahigian "got every break in the world," Winkin said. "He knows that Swift isn't going to come back tomorrow."

Sunday at noon it was Harvard's Charlie Marchese against Maine reliever John Kowalski and it was almost over right at the start. Bill Reynolds led off the Maine 10th with a single, and Dave Gonyar came in to pinch run. Rick Bernardo bunted Gonyar to second, and Rob Roy got what should have been the game-winning hit. But Gonyar tripped over third base and had to hold. Marchese got the second out on a come backer to the mound, and Harvard escaped the inning when Weller caught Mike Bonlick's fly ball to center.

Two innings later, Gonyar stoned, and the Crimson was awestruck. The backup left fielder hadn't even been on the Black Bear varsity much of the year, but his leadoff drive over the fence in the 12th was undoubtedly the single biggest swing in Maine's year. And it destroyed Harvard.

The "knockout punch" left Harvard reeling, and the Crimson wasn't ready when it had to go against Seton Hall again just 20 minutes after watching 11 1/2 innings work sail out of the ballpark. Harvard committed a season-high eight errors and lost, 9-1, dropping to third in the Northeast and 28-6 overall.

"We picked the wrong game to play our worst of the year," said Gaylord Lyman, one of the only two seniors on the Harvard team.

"I hate to finish up the way we did," Nahigian said. "Two emotional days. You just don't have time to adjust. You lose your concentration."

"Everybody's thinking about Maine," Lyman said.

THE NOTEBOOK: The Seton Hall loss, a four-hitter pitched by Pirate Phil Cundari, stopped freshman catcher Jim DePalo's 17-game hitting streak.... Freshman Jim Chenevey started the second Seton Hall game with 11 straight balls, then found his control and pitched excellently. He didn't give up a hit until the third inning, but the runs rushed in when his fielders made seven errors in the middle three innings. "Cheveney pitched a great game," Lyman said. "He just had nothing behind him. Any pitcher who pitches like that deserved to win."...The three earned runs Harvard got off Swift were as many as he had given up against all other 1984 opponents combined...Weller set the Crimson single-season record for runs scored (53). He extended his career-record runs total to 142.... Nahigian on the comeback victory over Seton Hall: The players "still continue to amaze me. The kids are just great."...Nahigian on the season: "It was a great, great year. The kids were just awesome."