Baseball Drops First NCAA Game, 16-1

BATON ROUGE, La.--The pregame press notes provided by Cal State-Fullerton mentioned rather conspicuously that yesterday's starter, freshman lefthander Jon Smith, "has an excellent pickoff move."

Two batters into yesterday's 16-1 drubbing at the hands of the eighth-ranked Titans, junior third baseman Hal Carey learned the hard way, getting caught napping between first and second with one out in the top of the first, the first of many Harvard rallies snuffed out on the afternoon.

The miscue was one of the many things that went wrong yesterday for the Crimson and was symbolic of an afternoon of uncharacteristic tentativeness on the basepath and of squandered opportunities in the batter's box. Combined with tough outings from four Harvard pitchers, it meant the Crimson's worst defeat of the 1998 campaign, as Harvard surrendered season highs in runs and hits--16 and 20, respectively.

All of this in a raucous Alex Box Stadium in downtown Baton Rouge, whose 2,014 fans in attendance tried all afternoon to pump the Crimson to an upset, which would have benefited the hometown Tigers.

"We are very disappointed," said Harvard Coach Joe Walsh. "The score reflects the fact that we played a very strong team, they swing the sticks. We didn't do anything well. We didn't hit, we got one and two-thirds out of our starter, and we didn't get the timely hits."

The score also reflected a demoralization to which this 34-11 team is quite unaccustomed, and from which it will have less than 24 hours to recover. Harvard will face Nicholls State, who lost to LSU yesterday night, in an 11 a.m. (Central time) matchup this morning, in the loser's bracket of this double-elimination South II Regional.

Junior righthander Garett Vail took the loss for the Crimson, working one and two-thirds innings, coughing up four earned runs on five hits. The outing was Vail's shortest since a 10-2 loss at Princeton in the first weekend of Ivy League play.

"Vail faced good hitters today," Walsh said. "He's a fastball pitcher and he faced a solid fastball-hitting team."

Fullerton strung together the rally that chased Vail in the second, getting four straight RBI base knocks from catcherDavid Trentine, second baseman David Bacani,centerfielder Reed Johnson and designated hitterGreg Jacobs, who finished 3-for-4 with three RBIand his sixth homer of the season. The four-spotput the Titans ahead for good.

Walsh countered with senior sidearmer MikeMarcucci, who stymied the Titan sticks for two andone-third inning--the only Crimson arm whichaccomplished anything against the Fullertonlineup. The Crimson's marked offensiveineffectiveness, however, made Smith and middlereliever Marco Hanlon--who earned the vulture win,allowing one earned run in three inning to improveto 5-2--look like aces.

Fullerton Coach George Horton, electing to savehis aces Benito Flores (12-0, 3.29 ERA) and ErasmoRamirez (10-5, 3.43) for antcipated matchups laterin the week against Tulane and topseed LSU, gotaway with throwing a question mark in Smith, whoat 2-0, 3.75 had not started since March 10 due toan undiagnosed arm injury.

Smith battled, firing 60-plus pitches acrossfour shutout innings, but kept the vaunted Harvardbats at bay, allowing only two hits while fanningthree. The lefthander sported an aggressivefastball and decent offspeed stuff but irkedHarvard primarily with his pickoff move.

"Smith kept us off-balance today," said seniorcenterfielder Brian Ralph. "He threw his fastballby some guys."

Smith's pickoff move kept the Harvard runninggame grounded until matters were out of hand. TheCrimson, which entered the contest averaging 3.1steals per game, didn't even attempt to swipe abag, never called a hit and run and never buntedin falling behind 4-0 by the time Smith exited.

Most significantly, Harvard left men on base infive innings, stranding eight on the day. Seniorshortstop David Forst flied out to the warningtrack in right with two men on in the top of thefourth, and Ralph--who leads the Crimson with ninehome runs--narrowly missed a two-out, game-tyinggrand slam off Hanlon in the top of the fifth.

"I was ahead in the count, and he gave me afastball above the knees," Ralph said. "I justmissed it. If I had gotten anything at all on it,it would have gone out. That was a key at-bat, andnot getting a run there hurt us."

Down 4-0 after four and a half, Walsh liftedMarcucci, presumably in order to keep himavailable for later games, switching to seniorrighthander John Wells, who gave up the criticalruns that put the game out of reach, surrenderinga two-run homer to Jacobs and a three-run shot toshortstop Ryan Owens--his 10th of the season.

Walsh mopped up with sophomore Rich Linden,junior Andrew Huling and freshman Dan Saken, allof whom took it on the nose as the Titans rubbedsalt in Harvard's wounds, tacking on three runs inthe seventh and four in the eighth to saddleHarvard with the stigma of a 16-1 debacle.

"You can talk about pickoff moves or at-bats,"Walsh said. "But when you lose 16-1 and get yourlegs turned out like that, a lot of people hadsomething to do with it."

Notes

In tallying its 20 hits, Fullerton nickedHarvard pitching for base hits in every inning,and got base knocks from every starter. Jacobs,first baseman Kevin Duck (3-for-5) and thirdbaseman Ryan Moore (3-for-3) led the way.

The loss marks only the second time inHarvard's history the program has lost an NCAAtournament Game One. In 11 appearances, Harvard is9-2 in openers.

Walsh announced that he would start freshmanrighthander John Birtwell (4-0, 2.57 ERA) in thismorning's elimination matchup against NichollsState. Walsh will also have juniors Andrew Duffelland Donny Jamieson, as well as sophomore DerekLennon, available out of the pen.

Despite the pickoff, Carey was the lonehorseman in the batter's box for Harvard, goingthree-for-three and scoring its only run in thetop of the eighth. Ralph plated him with an RBIsingle, his 33rd RBI on the year.

Third-seeded Tulane won yesterday's openingmatchup against Southwest Louisiana 11-5, asConference USA Pitcher of the Year Josh Bobbittposted his 13th win. Rightfielder Jason Sparks(2-for-4, 3 RBI) added two homers for the GreenWave, which tackles Fullerton this afternoon.CrimsonEmily J. KeefeLONE HORSE: Junior HAL CAREY (R)scored Harvard's only run in the eighth in a 16-1loss.

Walsh countered with senior sidearmer MikeMarcucci, who stymied the Titan sticks for two andone-third inning--the only Crimson arm whichaccomplished anything against the Fullertonlineup. The Crimson's marked offensiveineffectiveness, however, made Smith and middlereliever Marco Hanlon--who earned the vulture win,allowing one earned run in three inning to improveto 5-2--look like aces.

Fullerton Coach George Horton, electing to savehis aces Benito Flores (12-0, 3.29 ERA) and ErasmoRamirez (10-5, 3.43) for antcipated matchups laterin the week against Tulane and topseed LSU, gotaway with throwing a question mark in Smith, whoat 2-0, 3.75 had not started since March 10 due toan undiagnosed arm injury.

Smith battled, firing 60-plus pitches acrossfour shutout innings, but kept the vaunted Harvardbats at bay, allowing only two hits while fanningthree. The lefthander sported an aggressivefastball and decent offspeed stuff but irkedHarvard primarily with his pickoff move.

"Smith kept us off-balance today," said seniorcenterfielder Brian Ralph. "He threw his fastballby some guys."

Smith's pickoff move kept the Harvard runninggame grounded until matters were out of hand. TheCrimson, which entered the contest averaging 3.1steals per game, didn't even attempt to swipe abag, never called a hit and run and never buntedin falling behind 4-0 by the time Smith exited.

Most significantly, Harvard left men on base infive innings, stranding eight on the day. Seniorshortstop David Forst flied out to the warningtrack in right with two men on in the top of thefourth, and Ralph--who leads the Crimson with ninehome runs--narrowly missed a two-out, game-tyinggrand slam off Hanlon in the top of the fifth.

"I was ahead in the count, and he gave me afastball above the knees," Ralph said. "I justmissed it. If I had gotten anything at all on it,it would have gone out. That was a key at-bat, andnot getting a run there hurt us."

Down 4-0 after four and a half, Walsh liftedMarcucci, presumably in order to keep himavailable for later games, switching to seniorrighthander John Wells, who gave up the criticalruns that put the game out of reach, surrenderinga two-run homer to Jacobs and a three-run shot toshortstop Ryan Owens--his 10th of the season.

Walsh mopped up with sophomore Rich Linden,junior Andrew Huling and freshman Dan Saken, allof whom took it on the nose as the Titans rubbedsalt in Harvard's wounds, tacking on three runs inthe seventh and four in the eighth to saddleHarvard with the stigma of a 16-1 debacle.

"You can talk about pickoff moves or at-bats,"Walsh said. "But when you lose 16-1 and get yourlegs turned out like that, a lot of people hadsomething to do with it."

Notes

In tallying its 20 hits, Fullerton nickedHarvard pitching for base hits in every inning,and got base knocks from every starter. Jacobs,first baseman Kevin Duck (3-for-5) and thirdbaseman Ryan Moore (3-for-3) led the way.

The loss marks only the second time inHarvard's history the program has lost an NCAAtournament Game One. In 11 appearances, Harvard is9-2 in openers.

Walsh announced that he would start freshmanrighthander John Birtwell (4-0, 2.57 ERA) in thismorning's elimination matchup against NichollsState. Walsh will also have juniors Andrew Duffelland Donny Jamieson, as well as sophomore DerekLennon, available out of the pen.

Despite the pickoff, Carey was the lonehorseman in the batter's box for Harvard, goingthree-for-three and scoring its only run in thetop of the eighth. Ralph plated him with an RBIsingle, his 33rd RBI on the year.

Third-seeded Tulane won yesterday's openingmatchup against Southwest Louisiana 11-5, asConference USA Pitcher of the Year Josh Bobbittposted his 13th win. Rightfielder Jason Sparks(2-for-4, 3 RBI) added two homers for the GreenWave, which tackles Fullerton this afternoon.CrimsonEmily J. KeefeLONE HORSE: Junior HAL CAREY (R)scored Harvard's only run in the eighth in a 16-1loss.