Baseball 3-1 on Opening Weekend

NEW YORK--Showcasing both sides of its personality, the Harvard baseball team played two clean games on its opening Ivy League weekend and two forgettable ones.

As luck would have it, the Crimson dropped only one of four.

Harvard took an eight-inning, 18-16 decision from Penn on Friday, but a late rally fell short in Saturday's nightcap at Columbia, with Harvard losing 9-8 in a game the Lions tried their best to give away.

Sandwiched in between those messy two were a pair of pitching gems--sophomore John Birtwell's 6-0 shutout of Penn and freshman Ben Crockett's 9-1 mastery of Columbia--that allowed Harvard to post a 3-1 mark on the weekend.

But although the Crimson (9-8, 3-1 Ivy) took three of four from two Gehrig Division foes, nobody was talking about a successful weekend.

"We shouldn't lose to this ball club," said Harvard Assistant Coach Gary Donovan after the loss to Columbia on Saturday. Coach Joe Walsh was attending to a family matter and did not travel to New York.

"We took three out of four this weekend, but we haven't played well and we're not happy at all," Donovan said.

In comments that reflected the palpable disgust of the two-time defending Ivy champs, captain Hal Carey said the team was totally dissatisfied.

"Winning three games isn't really any consolation," Carey said. "We come into every weekend looking to win four, and we feel we're a better team than this."

Columbia 9, Harvard 8

It was a bad omen when senior Andrew Duffell, a converted starter who had earned a relief win on Friday, lasted only two batters into the second inning of a 9-8 loss in Saturday's nightcap at Baker Field.

The Crimson's fortunes didn't get any better after that.

After surrendering a leadoff home run to first baseman Peter Aswad and a single to centerfielder Dave Lewis, Duffell clutched his right elbow in pain and had to give way to junior Derek Lennon.

"The initial word is that it's an elbow sprain, but we don't know for sure and we don't have a timetable," Donovan said.

Duffell's early exit was all the more painful because the righthander seemed to have returned to the form of his sophomore year, when he posted an 8-1 record and a 2.35 ERA. Duffell spent most of 1998 battling the after-effects of off-season surgery but was 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA in the early going this season.

Pressed into rapid service from the bullpen, Lennon was stung for an RBI double by Derek Johnson--who finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored--and an RBI double from Hawkeye Wayne that put the Lions up 3-0.

"Columbia's a good-hitting ball club, and I give them credit for that," Carey said. "They came through with the big hits when they needed them."

The Crimson strung together four runs in the fourth to tie the game at 4-4, fashioning two of Columbia's six errors into three unearned runs. Sophomore leftfielder John Portman delivered a sacrifice fly, while Carey's double and freshman third baseman Mark Mager's infield single kept the rally rolling.

Lennon (1-1) gave the lead back in the bottom of the fourth, surrendering an RBI single to catcher Jason O'Reilly then a second home run to Aswad in the fifth, getting stuck with his first loss of the season.

Harvard rallied from a 9-4 deficit in the top of the seventh off Wayne, getting RBI singles from Mager and senior centerfielder Andrew Huling plus a sacrifice fly from senior catcher Jason Keck and had the go-ahead runs on board with two out for senior second baseman Peter Woodfork.

Woodfork, who leads the team with a .419 batting average and 26 hits, worked a 2-2 count but bounced into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, perfectly symbolic of Harvard's frustrations on the afternoon.

Harvard 9, Columbia 1

Scouts from the Philadelphia Phillies and the Seattle Mariners were on hand Saturday to catch a glimpse of Columbia's multi-talented Wayne. Turns out they should have trained their JUGS guns on Ben Crockett.

The righthander baffled the Lions with a seemingly effortless complete-game three-hitter, facing just three over the minimum and striking out five.

Crockett (1-1, 6.06 ERA) showed off a high-80s fastball with excellent location and good movement and also threw his curveball effectively for swinging strikes. He breezed through the game in just one hour and 45 minutes.

Crockett surrendered an unearned run in the first then allowed just three batters to reach base the rest of the way.

Harvard got an early 2-0 lead off Columbia loser Mike Orr (0-4), who gave up 13 hits and nine earned runs in a complete game of slightly worse pedigree.

Carey scored the game's first run in the first inning when junior designated hitter Jason Larocque grounded into a 5-3 double play with the bases loaded.

Portman drove in Woodfork with a one-out single in the second then delivered the big blow with a two-run home run in the top of the fourth that made it 4-1. Portman was 0-for-7 in Friday's doubleheader.

Carey, Mager and Huling all hit consecutive RBI singles in a three-run sixth as the Crimson piled on the luckless Orr.

It was otherwise a rough weekend for Carey, who was a Second Team All-Ivy selection last year and batted .374 but was just 4-for-17 on the weekend. He is currently hitting .224.

"It's been frustrating for most of the season," Carey said. I feel like I hit the ball well today, but I've really got nothing to show for it."

Harvard 6, Penn 0

PHILADELPHIA--The Harvard coaching staff has consistently pointed to a deep pitching staff as the club's greatest strength.

But performances like John Birtwell's in Friday's nightcap makes you wonder if all of those arms are really necessary.

The sophomore righthander made a smooth-as-silk changeup work with his two-seam and four-seam fastballs, and fashioned a four-hit, 12-strikeout shutout for his first win of the season.

"I felt like today was a good day because I threw three pitches for strikes," Birtwell said. "I was glad I was able to pick the team up because we haven't been playing like ourselves lately."

Birtwell worked through the Penn order with the impatience of a man who had to wait out a marathon three-hour, 30-minute opener before getting on the bump.

He retired 21 of the 26 batters he faced and never faced more than four men in one inning. He also struck out each member of the Quaker lineup at least once.

"Birtwell's going to be a key to our season, definitely," Walsh said. "I was happy about his approach, his quickness and his ability to throw three pitches, especially his changeup, for strikes."

In fact, the only thing Birtwell did wrong on the afternoon was dropping Binkowski's flip from the infield side of first base after Binkowski made a diving stop on James Mullen in the sixth.

"I felt bad about that because Bink made such a great play and played such great defense all afternoon," Birtwell said.

The Crimson jumped on Penn starter Mike Mattern early, staking a 4-0 lead through three. Huling made it 1-0 in the first when he stole third on the front end of a double steal then cruised home when third baseman Will Clark bobbled catcher Jeff Gregorio's throw into leftfield.

Keck plated Carey with a sacrifice fly in the third, and Larocque drove in Mager and Huling with a mammoth two-run double to right in the next at-bat.

"We were doing things Coach mentions all the time, making adjustments," Larocque said. "[Mattern] had been starting everybody off with fastballs, so I was gearing up for one on the first pitch and I got it."

Carey scored twice more, off a wild pitch in the fifth and off Huling's RBI single in the seventh, for the 6-0 final.

The Crimson's top three in the order--Carey, Mager and Huling--scored all six runs and reached base safely in eight of 12 plate appearances.

Harvard 18, Penn 16

It's typically a good sign when pinch runners aren't asked to do anything but run.

Luckily for the Crimson, Jeff Bridich managed to catch, throw and hit at the same time.

The junior backup catcher, who didn't enter Harvard's wild-beyond-words 18-16 win until he pinch-ran for Keck in the top of the seventh, figured in three bang-bang plays in the late innings, helping Harvard avoid the embarrassment of blowing a 12-run lead to snatch a win in Friday's opener.

Trailing 16-13, the Crimson loaded the bases with one out in the top of the seventh when Huling singled, freshman shortstop Nick Carter reached on Clark's error and Keck walked. Bridich trotted in to replace Keck, who represented the tying run, and when Larocque pounded a double to the right-centerfield gap, Walsh had no qualms about waving him home.

An off-line throw from the outfield brought Quakers catcher Jeff Gregorio up the third-base side of the plate, and Bridich, who arrived just before the ball, bumped Gregorio's glove on the way in, fouling up the tag at the plate to crash in with the tying run.

"At first I thought I would have to hold up, but Coach was waving all three of us in," Bridich said. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to run into [Gregorio], so I just tried to look for his mitt and hit it."

The game-tying hit was the culmination of an extremely solid opener for Larocque, who was 2-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored. The junior--who wasn't a regular at designated hitter until the Crimson's spring training trip--upped his batting average to .282 and finished the weekend with 16 RBI, good for third on the team.

"With the bases loaded and one out, all I wanted to do was put the ball in the outfield," Larocque said. "[Quaker reliever John Dolan] left a pitch up and I gave it a good shot. At least it was good enough to get all of the runs in."

In the top of the eighth, Bridich proved an unlikely hero for a second time, as the Crimson put two unearned runs on the board for the eventual winning margin. Harvard used a dropped third strike and two walks to load the bases for Bridich with two outs, and the junior battled reliever John Dolan to a full count. He fouled off several 3-2 pitches before driving a hard ground ball at third base.

Clark committed the cardinal fielder's sin and let Bridich's grounder skip underneath his glove to score Mager and Portman.

"I had fouled off three or four, all fastballs, until I finally put one in play," Bridich said. "I peeked down at third as I was running and I saw it go through [Clark's] legs. I felt pretty relieved, but I was pissed that I hadn't gotten more of the ball. Still, I was happy to be part of the two runs that won the game."

Bridich also threw out Penn shortstop Glenn Ambrosius stealing as the potential winning run in the seventh and handled a one-two-three inning from senior righthander Andrew Duffell in the eighth. Duffell pitched two shutout innings, striking out two and walking two to improve to 2-1.

The late five-run surge salvaged a potentially scandalous affair, which the Crimson led 12-0 after its half of the second.

Mager and Keck did the early damage, with the former driving in four runs on a triple and a single and the latter knocking home a pair and scoring a pair on a double and a single.

Senior Garett Vail started and worked five innings, allowing nine base hits but only one earned run, taking a no-decision after a Quaker rally in the sixth produced 10 runs and a short-lived lead.

Miraculously, Penn batters cranked two two-out grand slams in the frame, the first by Russ Farscht off sophomore John Franey and the second by Gregorio off junior closer Mike Madden.

Notes

It's been a tale of two seasons for the Crimson's four senior position players. Woodfork and Huling are one-two on the team in batting average, hitting .419 and .373 respectively. Woodfork also has 17 RBI and five stolen bases, while Huling has two homers, 20 RBI and six steals.

Carey and Keck, meanwhile, are bringing up the rear, Carey at .224 and Keck at .232.

"Those guys have been with us for four years, and we know what they can do," Donovan said. "That's not a concern for us."

In earlier action on its spring training trip, the Crimson posted a 4-5 record, including a split with budding arch-rival Oklahoma State. That record is on par with past trips.

Harvard opens its home schedule on Wednesday against Rhode Island. The Crimson is 22-2 since O'Donnell Field's dedication in 1997 and was a pristine 15-0 at home last season.