Boston University Rallies Past Batsmen, 10-6

The Harvard-Boston University baseball game yesterday at Soldiers Field took more turns than a San Francisco crooked street but, in the end, BU cleared a straight path.

The Terriers charged into the ninth. They batted around, collecting six hits, dotting the bases with their fire-engine-red uniforms, and erupting four runs to deflate the Crimson, 10-6. The Crimson failed to seal the Greater Boston League title, dropping its record to 9-12-1 overall, 5-2-1 in the GBL.

Slip Slidin' Away

Yesterday's contest was another game that Harvard let slip away. It was just another game that added to the Crimson's frustrations.

"We can't score the runs when we need to score them," Harvard third baseman Tom Konjoyan said. "I don't know. We can't try to come back every game in the ninth."

The Terriers snapped a 6-6 tie when B.U. pitcher Noah Rosen smacked a 2-2 pitch between short and third to drive in Dave Cunningham.

But BU Coach Bill Mahoney believed his selflessness set up his team's victory. In the seventh inning, the Terriers trailed 6-3. But when the team put the first two batters on, Bill Mahoney began to formulate his strategy.

"I looked at the scoreboard," Mahoney said. "I thought should we play for the big inning or try to keep it close and get two."

"We tried to get two back," Mahoney continued, " and when you're not greedy, you get three."

With runners on first and second, a balk was called on Harvard starting pitcher Mike Dorrington. He got Terrier third baseman James Sartori in an 0-2 hole, but lost him, walking Sartori and loading the bases.

Longer Than What?

Junior Dave Cunningham then came up to the plate, and his at-bat seemed to last longer than War and Peace.

Cunningham fouled the first pitch down third. After he looked at two low pitches from Dorrington, he fouled off the next two. Cunningham kept taking practice swings as he settled in the box. He looked at ball three, and then his patience payed off--he watched the pitch sail in low for ball four. Dorrington had walked in the run.

Second baseman Mario Ferrante forced in a run, and Rosen doubled between shortstop and third, driving in Sartori to tie the score, 6-6.

"They came ready to play and they took it to us," Konjoyan said. "They wanted it more than we did."

Both teams had forgettable first innings. Dorrington gave up three hits and three runs. And the first thought that came to his mind was, in the immortal words of our former president, "There they go again," But BU starting pitcher Ron Short wouldn't allow any jokes to go at Ronald Reagan's expense and promptly gave up three runs of his own.

Harvard manufactured a run in the third and two in the fifth. The fifth inning almost mirrored the first as Konjoyan, left fielder Marcel Durand and first baseman Rich Renninger played key roles in the drive.

Konjoyan and Durand each had three hits in the game, and Renninger went 2-for-4 with a sacrifice fly. The Crimson gathered 11 hits, but it wasn't enough against BU's 14 hits and decisive ninth inning.

"Somehow, we always rise to the occasion when we come here," Mahoney said.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard gets back into EIBL action this weekend when it hosts Columbia and Army in back-to-back doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at 12 p.m....Entering this week's EIBL action, Renninger was leading the league in batting with a .480 average. Durand is tied for the league lead in triples (2) and Bob Baxter is sixth in the league in E.R.A. (1.50).

EIBL Standings Team  EIBL Penn  14-2 Princeton  6-4 Army  8-6 Dartmouth  4-4 Columbia  6-8 Brown  5-7 Cornell  4-6 Navy  6-10 HARVARD  3-5 Yale  4-8