Rain Forces Baseball to Postpone Princeton Games

Judging by the weather, one would have thought that it was football season.

It was America's Pastime, however, that took place on Harvard's fields this

weekend.

The Crimson (7-16, 3-3) played three games this weekend, the first against Maine (15-4) on Friday and the following two against Cornell (6-9, 2-2), as a doubleheader, on Saturday.

The Black Bears triumphed on a cold, rainy day, 5-4, in a game cancelled in the top of the sixth inning by rain. Harvard salvaged a split against Cornell on Saturday, dropping the opener 3-1 in extra innings but surging back with a 17-5 victory in the afternoon.

Harvard originally had two more games scheduled yesterday against Princeton, but both were postponed by rain. Both contests will be replayed today at noon.

The Crimson started slowly and built momentum throughout the week. After committing six errors on Wednesday in a 7-2 loss against Rhode Island, Harvard had to battle through further pitching and defense woes in the

club's loss to Maine. Though the official final score of the game was 5-4, Maine actually tallied eight more runs in the top half of the sixth inning, all of which were discounted when the downpours began.

The Black Bears jumped out to a 5-1 lead, capitalizing on bookend home runs by freshman Matt Reynolds and sophomore Aaron Young. With Maine holding a 2-1 lead, Reynolds hit a two-out solo home run in the top of the fourth inning.

Pat Tobin followed Reynolds with a base-hit to center field, which set up Young's two-run 380-foot bomb to right-center.

Harvard answered with three runs of its own in the bottom half of the fourth inning. A Javy Lopez double began the scoring, driving in Marc Hordon and advancing Scot Hopps to third, who scored on Mark Mager's ground-out to shortstop. Freshman Trey Hendricks followed up with a pinch-hit line-drive down the right field line, knocking in Lopez and cutting Maine's lead to one.

The top of the sixth began with heavy rain and ended with Maine raining runs on the Crimson. T.J. Sevier, who replaced starter Madhu Satyanarayana, made two crucial throwing errors on sacrifice bunts, propelling Maine to an eight-run outburst.

Yet, according to the scorebook, the inning never existed. The game was cancelled in between the top and bottom halves of the sixth after a half-hour rain delay.

With an emphasis on improving the team's defense (Harvard made six errors against Rhode Island), the Crimson responded against Cornell in the weekend opener. Unfortunately, it was offense, rather than defense, that stood in the path of a Crimson victory. Though the first game of a double header usually lasts only seven innings, Harvard and Cornell decided to play nine.

Crimson junior Ben Crockett pitched a gem, going all nine innings and striking out seven in a losing effort. Harvard trailed 1-0 and was down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh inning when Hendricks delivered for Harvard again, driving in Lopez, who pinch ran for Hordon, on a base-hit between first and second base. The clutch single went for naught, unfortunately, after Erik Rico's triple put Cornell ahead in the ninth inning.

The Big Red scored an additional insurance run in the inning on Raul Gomez's RBI single. Cornell junior Brendan McQuaid went the distance against Harvard, allowing one run on six hits while matching Crockett all the way.

Harvard finally got over the hump in the afternoon, scoring a big 17-5 win to split the two-game series with Cornell. The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Harvard. It also marked the third consecutive occasion Harvard split a weekend double-header with an Ivy League opponent.

Harvard erupted for seven runs in the fifth inning to put the game out of reach. Junior third baseman Nick Carter delivered his team-leading fifth home run of the season. Carter is hitting .335 for the season and has asserted himself as the team's number one performer on offense. Though the

team committed three errors in the win, the outpour of offense was an uplifting capper to the weekend.