Baseball Clinches Red Rolfe Title

Last year, the Harvard baseball team rolled confidently through its Ivy League schedule only to be shocked by Princeton in the league championship series. Now, the stage is set for the Crimson to add the piece that was missing from last year's puzzle.

"I'm pretty excited for the team because we were there last year and lost, but we learned something," captain Peter Albers said. "We can take what we learned last year into this game and hopefully produce a different result."

Harvard (28-11, 18-2 Ivy) swept Dartmouth (22-16) in a double-header Monday to clinch the Red Rolfe division title and secure a spot in this weekend's Ivy League championship series. With Harvard's doubleheader sweep of Dartmouth on Sunday, Monday's wins completed a four-game weekend sweep of the Big Green.

In the doubleheader opener, junior centerfielder Brian Ralph continued his hot hitting, blasting a solo homer and driving in three runs to help give starter Andrew Duffell (6-0) the complete-game victory, 12-4. The win pushed Harvard a game and a half in front of idle Yale to mathematically eliminate the Elis.

In the nightcap, which was academic, senior Mike Hochanadel's 4-for-4 day and a home run by Albers paced the still-scorching Crimson bats to a 7-4 win for sophomore starter Donald Jamieson (4-2). Harvard's nine-game winning streak was then snapped yesterday with a 6-3 loss to Northeastern (27-17) in non-league play.

Harvard will play either Penn or Princeton at O'Donnell Field for the Ancient Eight title. The Tigers and Quakers are tied for first place in the Lou Gehrig division, and will decide the division title with a nine-inning "play-in" this afternoon.

The league championship will be a best-of-three series, with the first two games played Saturday, and the clincher played Sunday, if necessary.

Harvard 12, Dartmouth 4

Foremost in the minds of Harvard's players on Monday was the necessity of avoiding the fate of Princeton and Penn. Without a win in Monday's doubleheader opener, the Crimson would have been in a must-win situation in the second game if it was to avoid a one-game play-off with the Bulldogs.

"We didn't want to have to go to the fourth game," Duffell said. "We wanted to win right there."

Harvard scored nine runs on nine hits in the first three innnings, quickly putting to rest any notions Dartmouth may have had of acting as a spoiler. After putting two on the board in the first inning, Ralph led off the third with a home run over the right-field fence.

The Crimson then sandwiched seven hits between three fielding errors by the Big Green to score another six runs in the inning and all but clinch the division title.

While Harvard's offense was keeping the heads of Dartmouth's pitchers turned, Duffell was holding the Big Green at bay at the plate. After allowing a run in the first on an RBI double by senior centerfielder Andrew Spencer, Duffell held Dartmouth scoreless over the next four innings.

"The runs early on helped me out," Duffell said. "I could feel real confident about the fast-ball. I just threw it down the middle and let them hit it."

The Big Green mounted a mini-rally in the sixth when Spencer hit an RBI single and freshman first baseman Aaron Meyer brought him home with a two-run homer. But the three runs in the inning turned out to be all Dartmouth could muster, as Duffell struck out freshman James Little to end the game.

Harvard 7, Dartmouth 4

Given that Harvard had already clinched the division title, one might have expected some measure of complacency out of the Crimson in the nightcap of Monday's doubleheader.

Harvard's bats once again proved that to be far from true, however, as the Crimson got on the board early with two runs in the second.

First, Albers singled home Hochanadel with no outs in the inning. Then, after freshman Jason LaRocque walked, sophomore rightfielder Andrew Huling drove in Albers on a fielder's choice.

Dartmouth came right back with three runs off Jamieson in the bottom of the inning.

The Big Green drove in the first run on back-to-back doubles by freshman Brian Nickerson and Little. An RBI single by sophomore Ron Friedman accounted for the tying run, and classmate Michael Conway singled him home to give Dartmouth a 3-2 lead.

But Jamieson and juniors Mike Marcucci and John Wells held the Big Green in check the rest of the game. The only run the Crimson pitchers let up after the three-run third came on an RBI double by Spencer in the sixth.

With the pitching staff largely doing its job, Harvard's hitters needed only drive in a few runs, a skill at which they have become particularly adept over the last few games.

"The whole weekend we didn't stop swinging the sticks," Albers said. "Anytime there was doubt in any game, we came back swinging, and you have to feel good about that, especially going into the playoffs."

After an RBI single by Hochanadel in the third knotted the game at three, the Crimson took the lead for good in the fifth inning when it mounted a big two-out rally. With Ralph on first, Hochanadel hit tripled to center to drive in the go-ahead run. Freshman Eric Binkowski then singled Hochanadel to provide what turned out to be a needed insurance run.

Albers hit his fourth home run of the season in the sixth to give the Crimson a 6-3 lead.

Northeastern 6, Harvard 3

Yesterday in Brookline the Harvard baseball team suffered its first loss in 10 games and only its second in 16 games.

Northeastern lit up Harvard starter Mike Giampaolo (2-1) for four runs on four hits in the second inning to post an insurmountable lead. The big blow in the innning was a two-run homer by first baseman Carlos Pena.

Harvard's bats struck back in the top of the third. With junior David Forst on second and sophomore Todd Harris on first, junior Aaron Kessler brought in Harvard's first run with an RBI single to right.

Then, Ralph singled in Harris and Albers brought in Kessler with a sacrifice fly to center to bring Harvard within one, 4-3.

But that was as close as the Crimson would come. The Huskies put the nail in the coffin in the seventh when designated hitter Mike O'Donnell blasted a two-run home run to right field off of sophomore reliever Neil Magnuson.

Ralph continued to tear the cover off the ball, notching three hits and an RBI.

Harvard again takes the field today against UMass, which is the top-ranked team in the northeast. The Minutemen drubbed the Crimson, 11-4, in the Beanpot, so Harvard is looking for revenge.

"We love to play UMass," Albers said. "We think we're one of the top teams in the nation and can beat any team in the nation."

More importantly, the Crimson is looking to prepare itself for the league championship series this weekend, where it has some unfinished business from last year to attend to.

"I can't wait," Duffell said. "I think we're hungrier than we were last year." Dartmouth  4 Harvard  12

Dartmouth  4 Harvard  7

Northeastern  6 Harvard  3

Dartmouth  4 Harvard  7

Northeastern  6 Harvard  3

Northeastern  6 Harvard  3