Cadets Take Two From Batsmen, 7-4, 6-0

The Harvard baseball team continued to struggle Monday, dropping a doubleheader, 7-4, 6-0, to Army at Soldiers Field.

"In most of our games this year, we got behind right away, and we had to struggle back," Captain Dan McConaghy said.

Monday's games were no exceptions.

After going down 4-0 in Game One, freshman reliever Pete Rau pitched six scoreless innings and was backed by a trio of homers from the Harvard hitters to pull the Crimson (9-16 overall, 3-9 EIBL) even with the Cadets, 4-4.

Then Rau watched one pitch turn into a three-run shot that buried Harvard, 7-4.

Game Two was even more frustrating. Junior righthander Mike Dorrington came in midway through the second inning and held the Cadets to only two hits and one run throughout the rest of the game.

But Dorrington started with a five-run deficit. And his counterpart, Army hurler Shannon Smith, pitched no-hit ball through six and two-thirds innings.

It was no contest.

Game One

In the top of the first inning of the first game, Army quickly scored four times on only two hits off righthander Greg Ubert.

After two scoreless innings, junior Tom Konjoyan and sophomore Jay Jakimczyk connected for a home run apiece in the third to pull the Crimson within two runs.

Sophomore Ted Decareau smashed another homer in the following inning, sending McConaghy in as well to knot the score, 4-4.

Meanwhile, Rau--who had replaced Ubert in the first inning--was sizzling on the mound.

"It was about the best I've thrown," Rau said. "I held them most of the way, and the guys played great defense behind me."

But Rau gave up a homer to Army's Darren Lynn with two outs and two on in the seventh, and this time the Crimson failed to come back.

"It was a tough loss," Rau said. "It was a heartbreaker at the end. It happens sometimes and it was too bad that it happened then because we really needed a win. That took the wind out of us for the second game."

Game Two

Harvard again fell behind early in the second game. Army led 5-0 after two innings, and then added another run in the fourth.

Smith shut out the Harvard bats until the final out of the game, but then McConaghy managed to sneak in a hit to right field.

"Smith threw a good mix of curve balls and fast balls," McConaghy said.

"We were hitting the ball pretty well," Decareau said. "We just didn't get any breaks."

With six games to play, Harvard is already out of the playoffs. Penn clinched the EIBL title last weekend, and will be the only team to advance to post-season action.