Batsmen Seek More Ivy Magic

Looking to get back to its winning ways this weekend, the Harvard baseball team will travel to Princeton and Cornell to kick off the Ivy League season.

Harvard (7-6), the defending Ivy champ, is returning from its up-and-down spring break trip to south Florida ready to pick up where it left off last year in the Ancient Eight.

"We are very confident going into to this weekend's games," said junior pitcher Andrew Duffell. "We lost some players last year, but we have some good freshmen, and we've been swinging the bats real well."

Last season Harvard posted the all-time best Ivy League regular season record, going 18-2, en route to a 34-16 overall record, finishing just two victories shy of reaching the College World Series. Among the 34 wins were stunning victories against national powers UCLA and Miami.

Last week, however, Miami (28-4) proved to be too much for the Crimson to handle. Having won five straight games, Harvard looked poised to give the number one team in the nation a run for its money. The Hurricanes had other plans, however, outscoring the Crimson by a total of 29-2 in a three-game sweep.

Now Harvard returns from sunny south Florida, trying to get back into the win column.

As it travels to Princeton tomorrow, the Crimson will look to avenge its only three league defeats from last season. Princeton, the defending Gehrig Division champs, swept a doubleheader against Harvard early in the 1997 campaign, and later defeated the Crimson in the first game of the Ivy Championship.

"Princeton is definitely one of our biggest rivals," said Duffell, who will pitch against the Tigers tomorrow. "We feel that we owe them something after last year, and we are confident that we'll be able to beat them."

After the sweep early in the season, Harvard reeled off 16 consecutive league victories to coast to the Ivy League Championship. And following the loss in the first game of the title series to the Tigers, the Crimson took the next two to move on in the postseason.

After tomorrow's doubleheader against Princeton, Harvard moves on to Ithaca, N.Y. to take on Cornell in another two-game set. The Big Red, which finished near the bottom of the Ivies last season, going 7-13 in the league and 13-26 overall, look to avoid another season sweep at the hands of the Crimson. Cornell is clearly not a premier team, but Harvard's players understand that there is no such thing as a sure win.

"In the Ivy League you can never take a team for granted," Duffell said. "Cornell is a good hitting team, and they always play us tough."

If Harvard is to pull off the two sweeps, it will need the continued support of the lineup that averaged nearly 10 runs a game during its first 10 contests. Despite managing only a total of two runs in its three-game series with Miami, the Crimson offense remains one of the squad's strongest assets, as it boasts a .318 team batting average.

Harvard, however, will have to go without defending Ivy League Player of the Year Brian Ralph. The senior centerfielder, who led the team with a .390 batting average last season and never ceases to amaze with his glove, is nursing a broken bone in his hand and will not play this weekend.

Thus far, however, Ralph's replacement, rookie Scott Carmack, hasn't missed a beat. Carmack currently leads the team in hitting with a .471 batting average. Sophomore Jason Larocque--who is faced with the unenviable task of replacing star first baseman Peter Albers '97--has also stepped up his play, hitting .348 with eight RBI over the break.

The Crimson has also received strong performances at the plate from senior Aaron Kessler, as well as from juniors Peter Woodfork, Hal Carey and Andrew Huling.

While the hitting has been strong so far this season, the Crimson pitching staff has not been at the top of its game. Harvard enters the Ivy League opener with a 5.95 ERA.

The Crimson will need some consistency off of the mound if it looks to repeat as champion, and it will look to its ace, Duffell, to lead the way. Last season the junior hurler went 8-1 with a 2.35 ERA, and finished second only to teammate Frank Hogan '97 in the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year vote.

The Crimson did receive strong outings over the break from freshman John Birtwell and sophomore Rich Linden--who doubles as Harvard's starting quarterback. Birtwell went 2-0 over the break, pitching 13.0 scoreless innings, while Linden finished the week with a 1.93 ERA, going 1-0 in three outings.

The Crimson players remain confident that their pitching staff will regain last season's form and that its hitting and defense will lead it to victory.

Anything short of an Ivy League championship this season will be a disappointment. And tomorrow afternoon, Harvard's quest for its second straight Ancient Eight title begins.