From JV to Star

Make way for Jeff Bridich.

The Harvard baseball team's junior designated hitter/left fields, who wasn't even on the varsity roster last season and has started just 14 games in this one, is forcing Harvard Coach Joe Walsh to give him at-bats, and making the rest of the Ivy League take notice.

Bridich went 9 for-14 in a 3-1 weekend against second place Brown, driving in eight runs and scoring five. He hit a three-run home run in the series opener, and went 3-for-3 with three RBI in the finale, both Harvard wins.

His batting average now stands at an even .400, with two home runs and 16 RBI. Bridich is also second on the team in slugging percentage, trailing only center fielder Andrew Huling at.600.

"Bridich is getting up in RBI situations and leadoff situations and he's coming through," Walsh said. "He's seeing the ball real well right now and he's taking the ball the other way and using the whole yard."

Bridich is playing like a regular veteran of Harvard-style baseball, dropping bunts, spraying the ball to all fields and taking extra bases. Moreover, he's heads-up runner who charges the base paths like a burly Rickey Henderson.

In the Crimson's 15-12 victory in Game 1 of the Brown series, Bridich had a typically strong day. He singled and stole a base in the third, walked and scored a run in the fifth, and in his second trip to the plate in the frame, took Bear reliever Bryant Romo yard to center field for a three-run shot.

And in a 6-2 win in Game 4, Bridich had RBI in three straight at-bats, keeping rallies rolling each time with a pair of run-scoring singles and a sacrifice fly.

Even on his rare outs last weekend, Bridich contributed. Along with the sac fly, he moved a runner over in Game 3. In 16 plate appearances, he made unproductive outs only four times, and had a .625 on-base percentage.

Bridich started the season with an engraved seat on the Harvard bench. The media guide lists him as a potential backup catcher, and until the Ivy slate, he saw most of his duty in spot situations-pinch-running and spelling senior Jason Keck behind the dish.

But Bridich has scratched, clawed and seemingly willed his way into the starting lineup, converting on every opportunity he's been given.

The Crimson's Ivy opener, an 18-16 win over Penn on April 2, provides a microcosm of the little things Bridich has done to win more than his expected share of playing time.

Entering a game Harvard trailed 16-13 in the top of the seventh as pinch runner, Bridich scoured the tying run when he bounced Quaket catcher Jeff Gregorio at the plate and knocked the ball free.

He threw out the potential go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame, then plated runs 17 and 18 with a booted ground ball to third.

That should have been an early indication that the baseball gods were smiling on left Bridich. The Crimson's Athlete of the Week honors is another. --DANIEL G. HABIB