Baseball Drops Beanpot Opener to Northeastern, Squanders Lead to Brown

In two games yesterday, the Harvard baseball team twice rallied back from early deficits, only to lose both contests upon giving the lead back up in the late innings.

In a game that was originally scheduled for last Friday but was postponed due to rain, Brown scored five runs in the top of the ninth to upend Harvard 6-3 at O'Donnell Field.

Earlier in the afternoon, the Crimson (15-18, 8-5 Ivy) lost 7-5 to Northeastern in the Beanpot Semifinal at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I.

Harvard will next play in the Beanpot consolation game against Boston College, who lost its own semifinal game yesterday to UMass, 4-1.

The contest is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at Fenway Park.

BROWN 6, HARVARD 3

Just two outs away from nailing down a 3-2 victory, Harvard senior reliever Derek Lennon made a costly throwing error with the bases full that allowed two runs to score and lifted Brown to a 6-3 victory yesterday.

With the loss, Harvard was handed its third straight defeat and fell five and a half games back of Dartmouth for first place in the Red Rolfe Division standings.

Crimson junior righthander John Birtwell turned in a solid starting performance, scattering five hits through the first eight innings of work, but ran into trouble in the top of the ninth.

With one man on and one out, Birtwell surrendered a walk and an infield hit that loaded the bases for Brown.

Harvard Coach Joe Walsh then made the decision to pull Birtwell in favor of Lennon, who entered yesterday's game having allowed ten earned runs in 11.2 innings on the season.

"I thought Birtwell pitched well the entire game," sophomore shorthstop Mark Mager said. "It was too bad we couldn't close it out for him."

Lennon was greeted by Brown catcher Greg Metzger, who chopped an innocent roller right in front of home plate. The ball died right in front of Lennon, who fired home to try for the force play at the plate.

The throw, however, went wide of sophomore catcher Brian Lentz, allowing Brown to score the tying and go-ahead runs.

"Derek made the right decision throwing home," said Mager. "It was the aggressive play, but it was a tough ball to pick up and throw."

The Bears padded their lead with two more runs that innning before Lennon was finally able to retire the side.

"I felt like we played well up to that point," Mager added. "But then the wheels came off."

The ninth-inning rally by Brown spoiled an earlier comeback by Harvard, who fought back after falling behind 1-0 in the fourth inning.

"It was tough to lose, especially since we've been struggling lately," Mager said. "To come back after being down only to give up the lead was disheartening."

Harvard's first run came in the bottom of the sixth when a sacrifice fly by Mager drove home junior Joe Llanes, who had led off the inning with a double.

The Crimson then added two more runs in the eighth, as Lentz struck a two-run single up the middle.

Harvard was held scoreless the rest of the way, however, as Brown junior Jim Johnson (5-2) went the distance to earn the win.

The nine-inning effort was Johnson's sixth complete game of the season.

With this past weekend's bad weather having forced the cancellation of the three of the four meetings between the two teams, Harvard and Brown still have a pair of games to make up at some point later this season. No date has been announced as of yet.

NORTHEASTERN 7, HARVARD 5

Harvard will have to go yet another year without a Beanpot baseball championship, as the Huskies (16-12) downed the Crimson 7-5 yesterday on the opening day of the 11th annual edition of the Boston baseball tournament.

Northeastern pitcher Ken Henry earned the complete-game victory for the Huskies, despite surrendering five runs on eight hits.

Harvard will now play in the tournament's consolation game for the second straight year. The Crimson has not celebrated a Beanpot title since 1991, when it defeated B.C. 12-9.

The nine-year drought is the longest dry spell of any of the four Beanpot teams.

Three runs in the bottom of eighth gave Northeastern the victory. Two of those runs came off Crimson freshman reliever Kenon Ronz (1-2) who was dealt the loss, despite allowing just two hits in 4.2 innings of work.

Ronz had replaced Harvard starter Mike Dryden, who was chased from the game after just 2.2 innings of work.

Dryden gave up four runs on seven hits before leaving the game.

Starting in the fifth inning, the Crimson offense began slowly chipping away at the Huskies' lead.

Junior center fielder Scott Carmack led off the inning with a double. After sophomore Javy Lopez popped out to first, Llanes followed up with a single that moved Carmack to third.

Sophomore second baseman Faiz Shakir, who finished the day with three RBI, then plated Carmack with an infield groundout.

Mager drove in the Crimson's second run with an RBI-single that scored Llanes.

"One positive that came out of today was we did a good job of moving runners over in key situations," Mager said.

Harvard overtook the lead in the top of the seventh with a three-run rally that was highlighted by a two-run double by Shakir.

Shakir, who leads the team with a .350 batting average, went a combined 3-for-7 in the day's two games.

Harvard relinquished the lead in the bottom of the eighth as Northeastern compiled a walk and four hits to go ahead by the eventual margin of victory.

Sophomore right hander Ben Crockett recorded the last two outs of the inning by striking out back-to-back hitters.

By that point, however, the damage had been done and the Crimson's fate was sealed.