Baseball Put Down By Huskies

Junior left fielder Javy Lopez strode to the plate in the ninth inning against Northeastern yesterday seeking to be the hero for the Harvard baseball team for the second straight week.

He fell just a few feet short.

With the Crimson trailing by two and the tying runs on base with two outs, Lopez launched a deep drive to right that appeared destined to land beyond the fence and give Harvard the lead.

But Huskies right fielder Todd Korchin made a spectacular grab, reaching over the outfield wall to rob Lopez-who had knocked in the game-winning run for Harvard against Holy Cross last Wednesday-of the go-ahead homer.

The catch ended the Crimson's comeback attempt and preserved a 4-2 win for the Huskies (8-18) in a wild affair at Friedman Diamond yesterday.

The contest-which featured 19 men left on base, six errors, and two ejections-was a wacky one from start to finish.

By the seventh inning, Harvard (12-19, 7-5 Ivy) was down to one coach and had its catcher playing first and its third baseman on the mound.

In fact, junior Nick Carter pitched well in relief after starting the game at third. But when he took the mound in the bottom of the seventh with the game tied 2-2, he faced a nearly impossible situation with the bases full of Huskies and no outs.

Carter walked the first batter he faced to force in Northeastern's Michael Lomuscio from third. Though Carter struck out the next three batters in a row to end the inning, Lomuscio's run proved to be the game-winner.

Earlier in the inning, Northeastern was helped out by a fielding error by Lentz, who started yesterday's game at first base despite usually playing catcher.

The Huskies added an insurance run in the eighth after Carter hit Northeastern's leadoff batter with a pitch, and then made an errant throw to first on a pickoff attempt that allowed the runner to advance second.

Lomuscio struck again, singling through the hole on the right side to plate the run.

Carter's wayward pickoff throw was his third error of the game. He committed the first two while playing third base.

Before surrendering the lead in the late innings, Harvard took a 2-1 advantage in the third after a Husky error allowed Lopez and freshman center fielder Bryan Hale to score.

But in the bottom half of the inning, things started to get really interesting.

After Huskies catcher Luke Carlin led off the inning with a walk, Lomuscio hit a ground ball to third that Carter fielded and threw to second in hopes of turning a double play.

As second baseman Faiz Shakir caught the ball and pivoted to make the relay throw to first, Carlin barreled into second in an egregious attempt to take him out. When Walsh came out of the Harvard dugout to argue the play, the discussion quickly became animated and Walsh got tossed.

"Coach Walsh and the umpire weren't the best of friends," Lopez said.

The Crimson's frustration boiled over again shortly after Northeastern tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth. As Harvard took the field between innings, Harvard Assistant Coach Gary Donovan took advantage of the lull in the action to exchange a few more choice words with the umpire.

Donovan was promptly ejected, leaving fellow Harvard assistant coach Matt Hyde to manage the team alone.

Harvard sophomore righthander Barry Wahlberg turned in a respectable starting effort, allowing just five hits and no earned runs. He was lifted in the sixth in favor of sophomore Madhu Saty.

Carter, who had not appeared as a pitcher before this season, had an adventurous time on the hill, but showed plenty of talent in striking out the side in the eighth.

"Nicky has a great fastball and a great curveball," Lopez said. "He's been mostly working at third base, but he's done a really good job pitching. Hopefully he can become one of our closers because he definitely has the stuff for it."

Northeastern starter Jason Gillespie threw a complete game, pitching just well enough to earn his first win of the season. He allowed only seven hits and struck out seven, but he just barely escaped blowing Northeastern's lead in the ninth.

After retiring the Crimson's first two batters, Gillespie allowed Lentz and junior shortstop Mark Mager to reach safely, setting the stage for Lopez's at-bat.

Having just watched Gillespie work to the two batters ahead of him, Lopez had a pretty good idea what was coming on the first pitch.

"He had started Lentz and Mager off with fastballs before me, and he was working me away all game," Lopez said. "It was a clutch situation and I was just trying to make something happen."

Lopez-who went 2-for-4 on the day-guessed right on Gillespie's offering, but came up just shy of putting Harvard back in the lead.

"Right when I hit it, I thought it had a chance [of going out]," he said. "But the right fielder made a great play. It was kind of a heartbreaker."

The Crimson, who saw its three-game winning streak come to a halt with yesterday's loss, will play its second cross-town rival in as many days when it faces Boston College in Chestnut Hill this afternoon.