Baseball Rained Out; Looks to Clinch Rolfe

It was a day on which the Rich Linden of Harvard Stadium fame would have had no trouble playing.

But the light drizzle that covered Fenway Park also benched the sophomore quarterback-turned-starting pitcher, forcing the postponement of yesterday's Beanpot Championship rematch against UMass.

I'm disappointed, but that's the game," Linden said. "That's one advantage of football--we would have played in this."

Linden (1-0, 3.60 ERA) was scheduled to start against the Minutemen--New England's top-ranked team--and was primed to help the Crimson (21-9, 9-3 Ivy) secure Beantown bragging rights for the first time since 1991. The righthander will now have to await a May 4 rescheduled date before trying his hand at some giant-killing on the diamond.

One has to believe that the grey skies over Lansdowne Street were interpreted as something of a reprieve by Minuteman Coach Mike Stone and his UMass squad.

Put briefly, it hasn't been the greatest of weeks for the Minutemen (22-8, 11-1 Atlantic Ten). After watching Harvard Coach Joe Walsh's Crimson treat Northeastern like a bush league team in an 11-0 blowout on Tuesday, UMass dropped a convincing 21-8 decision against Maine a day later.

Could it be that UMass was anxiously looking ahead to its Fenway date with what has to be considered its chief regional competition? Let's leave that rather provocative question aside until the rematch, however, and turn to Harvard's more pressing business at hand.

Namely the Brown Bears (9-28, 4-8), losers of seven straight Ivy games, and the Crimson's second straight weekend of Red Rolfe divisional play. On paper, the matchups look as one-sided as they did in last season's four game sweep at Providence, but that, as they say, is why they play the games.

"On paper, we were better than Columbia, too, and you saw what happened there," said junior righthander Andrew Duffell. "When the weekend rolls around, it all depends on who comes to play."

Duffell (2-2, 2.25 ERA), the likely starter in Saturday's opener at O'Donnell Field, was referring to a home doubleheader against the hard-luck Lions, in which Harvard needed an extra-inning comeback and gutsy relief outings from senior Mike Marcucci and sophomore Derek Lennon to pull out two wins.

Since that series, Harvard has posted a 6-2 record, but, perhaps more importantly, has taken great strides toward cleaning up its infield defense, the chief flaw in its fundamentals play this year.

"That's something that's gotten in our heads," said Junior second baseman Hal Carey after the Yale series. "I think now we need to stop talking about it and relax, play the field."

After an infield realignment--a swap of junior third baseman Peter Woodfork and Carey--and two straight games with no errors, Harvard is warming to its best baseball of the year, and at the most crucial point in the season.

Still clinging to a three-game divisional lead, the Crimson can, with some help, actually clinch its third straight Red Rolfe title this weekend. Harvard would need a sweep against the Bears and a split between second-place squads Yale and Dartmouth.

But to its credit, the Crimson is keeping its eyes off the scoreboard.

"We're not thinking about clinching," Walsh said. "We got caught up in that last year, and it hurt us. From a coaching standpoint, you just keep playing hard and try to win every game."

Walsh will go with his top-flight rotation in these conference games, likely throwing Duffell, junior righthander Garett Vail (2-2, 3.00), junior righthander Donny Jamieson (1-1, 5.00) and either junior James Kalyvas (0-1, 5.11) or Lennon (2-1, 2.25).

Both Jamieson and Vail will look to bounce back from rough outings at Yale--Jamieson allowed four earned runs on eight hits in four innings, while Vail surrendered five earned in four and two-thirds--with challenging starts against the hot-hitting Bear lineup.

Paced by an underclassman doubleplay combo--freshman shortstop Dan Kantrovitz, who hit .333 in five games last week, including a pair of homers and six RBI, and sophomore second baseman Jeff Lawler, who drove in 11 during the same period--Brown will look to duplicate its 19-run performance Wednesday at Holy Cross.

"We haven't seen Brown yet this year," Walsh said. "But we know they're hanging up the numbers."

Harvard expects strong work at the plate from its senior stalwarts--shortstop David Forst, batting .386 with 21 RBI, centerfielder Brian Ralph, who returned from injury 12 games ago to hit .410 with three homers and a .692 slugging percentage and leftfielder Aaron Kessler, who carries a 17-game hitting streak into the weekend.

Notes

As of Tuesday's Beanpot semifinal win, Harvard boasted eight of eight position starters batting better than .300. Forst is followed by junior catcher Jason Keck at .362 and Carey at .355. The squad is hitting .332, a full 60 points better than its opponents.

Harvard's last two games--both error-free wins--were the first back-to-back errorless games the defense has played this season. Last year the Crimson posted the nation's sixth-best fielding percentage.

In last season's Brown series, the Crimson got four wins from its starting pitchers, including victories out of Duffell, Jamieson and Kalyvas. The trio has managed only three wins combined this season.