Baseball Goes Down to Bayou

Looking for the last three College World Series champions? They're bearing down on Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the beginning of the long march back to Omaha.

Two-time defending champ and host LSU, along with 1995 titlist Cal State-Fullerton, will get in their digs tomorrow afternoon at Alex Box Stadium, seeded first and second respectively in the South II Regional of the NCAA's 48-team tournament.

For the record, there's another gem of a ballclub buried down at the fifth seed. It's the best team in New England, it's won two straight Ivy League crowns and it's primed to duplicate the shocker it pulled off in Stillwater, Okla. about this time last year.

For the second consecutive seasons, the Harvard Crimson will quit Cambridge a few days earlier than the rest of us, trekking to the deep South for a crack at glory and an opportunity to debunk the myth that good baseball doesn't exist in the Northeast--and it has to like its chances.

Harvard (34-10, 18-4 Ivy) will kick off the 11th trip to the NCAA tournament in the history of its program with a 3 p.m. matchup against Fullerton (44-15, 25-5 Big West) tomorrow, with remaining games in the six-team, double-elimination field contingent upon Round One results.

The NCAA selection committee surprised Harvard with a five-seed, rewarding its sparkling 34-6 mark against non-ranked opponents and last year's third-place finish--which included victories over top-seeded UCLA and Stetson--in the Midwest Regional.

We feel the respect the committee showed us is well-deserved," said captain Dave Forst. "And we feel that we can repeat what we accomplished last year."

The Crimson will open against a Titans squad that received an at-large bid after a mediocre 2-2 performance in the Big West tournament. Fullerton dropped a 6-5 decision to eventual runner-up Sacramento State, then lost its most recent game 12-0 to fellow NCAA tournament participant Long Beach State.

The word on Fullerton is that it plays a brand of baseball similar to the Crimson's preferring the hit-and-run to the long ball, beating opponents with the short game that Harvard seems to have down pat.

"They're not a powerhouse team," said junior catcher Jason Keck. "They're more crafty, they hit and run, which gives us a better chance. We're looking forward to the matchup."

The Titans also boast one of California's top lefthanded starters in Cal State-Northridge transfer Benito Flores. The senior--who was junior righthander Donny Jamieson's teammate at Orange Country's El Dorado High School--sports a nifty 12-0 record and a 3.29 ERA.

"If history repeats itself, we'll be in good shape," Forst said. "Last year two of our big wins came against lefties--UCLA and Miami. They're throwing lots of off-speed pitches and getting up around 85 with the fastball, and we're just trying to take the ball the other way."

But among Harvard baseball's distinguishing characteristics this season remains its talented--and extraordinarily deep--pitching staff. After losing Frank Hogan '97 to graduation, and watching junior righthander Andrew Duffell struggle with injury, the Crimson found aces wherever it looked, from junior second-team All-Ivy starter Garett Vail (5-2, 2.34 ERA) to freshman phenom John Birtwell (4-0, 2.57).

Coach Joe Walsh additionally found himself blessed with a bullpen that could go four and five deep without falling off, getting breakthrough years from senior first-team All-Ivy Mike Marcucci, whose middle relief expertise got him seven wins across 35 and two-thirds innings of work, and sophomore Derek Lennon, who made the jump from the junior varsity program and impressed in long relief, finishing 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA.

"In seven-inning games, you can get away with not having a deep pen," Keck said. "But we had a whole lot of quality guys throwing every day."

Harvard one-through-nine, a Murderer's Row in its own right, brings its monstrously successful run-and-gun lineup to Baton Rouge having scored 38 runs in its last four games--against Princeton and LeMoyne, ranked 20th and first nationally in ERA, respectively.

Forst and classmate Brain Ralph lead the way, Forst batting .409 with 61 hits and Ralph, despite missing a chunk of the season, hitting .373 with nine home runs and 32 RBI. Ralph is only one long ball away from tying Harvard's all-time record for homers in a season.

Sandwiched between them in the cleanup spot is Keck, who won the starting catching job last season but hit only .275, but earned first-team all-Ivy honors this season with a .383 average and 37 RBI. Keck also hit .464 in league contests, narrowly losing the Blair Bat crown to Yale's Tony Coyne.

"Regionals comes down to whatever you've got left at the end of the last game," Keck said. "That means the top team gets out, and it really proves who that team is."

The Crimson has the weapons--on the bump and in the batter's box--to give the Regional a jolt. For its graduating seniors and for the rest of team rapidly making a claim to the top-flight of college baseball, this weekend in Bayou country could be memorable indeed.

Notes

Joining Keck and Marcucci on the Ivy League's first team was Ralph, who hit five homers in 45 at-bats, while fielding 1.000. Vail, junior third baseman Hal Carey and junior rightfielder Andrew Huling were second-teamers, while basically the rest of the lineup--Forst, Duffell, Jamieson, senior leftfielder Aaron Kessler, senior designated hitter Brett Vankoski and junior second baseman Peter Woodfork--were honorable mentions.

The remainder of the South II Regional includes three-seed Tulane, the Conference USA champions, four-seed Southwest Louisiana, the Sun Belt winners, and six-seed Nicholls State, at 28-32 the only sub-.500 team in the entire field of 48, which received the Southland Conference's automatic bid.