Baseball Finds No Consolation

BOSTON-The Harvard baseball team entered yesterday's Beanpot consolation game against Northeastern knowing that the season was about to end earlier than it would have liked.

No one could have predicted just how early the actual game would be over.

Northeastern jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back as the Crimson (18-26, 11-9 Ivy) lost its final game of the season yesterday, falling to the Huskies at Fenway Park, 7-2.

"We didn't come in here to Fenway and play to our capabilities," Harvard Coach Joe Walsh said after the team's last place Beanpot finish. "We didn't play with fire. As a coach, it hurts."

Freshman lefty starter Kenon Ronz struck out the first batter he faced, but then walked Huskie third baseman Luke Carlin. Carlin advanced to second on a ball thrown past senior Scot Hopps, who started the final game of the year behind the plate in place of sophomore Brian Lentz.

After first baseman Trey Hendricks misplayed a batted ball to allow the next hitter to get aboard, Northeastern's Ben Beck tripled to bring two runs home. Two batters later, left fielder Pedro Pena blasted Ronz' 0-2 pitch deep into dead center field. The ball landed in the tarp over the center field bleachers, and the Crimson suddenly faced a 4-0 deficit.

Ronz had also struggled over the weekend against Dartmouth, and had seen his ERA rise a full point in his last three starts.

"He started out well, but his fastball has been getting banged around," Walsh said. "We haven't done a good job using our 0-2 pitch to set up the next pitch. You throw a fastball on 2-0, and I'm fine with that. But on 0-2-it's little things like that."

Things only got worse for Ronz in the next inning. Apparently trying to work his pitches inside a bit more, Ronz hi t two batters and missed Lentz on a third pitch before he was taken out in favor of fellow sophomore Brendan Reed.

Reed didn't fare much better. He was able to get out of the inning but began to fall apart in the third, allowing two consecutive singles and a wild pitch that allowed a run to cross the plate. Sophomore Madhu Satyanarayana came in to replace Reed and fired one past Hopps two batters in. Satyanarayana eventually settled in and pitched the duration of the seven-inning game, allowing only one additional run in the sixth.

The Crimson bats could get nothing off of John Burns. The starter for the Huskies-who entered the game with a 12.00 ERA-scattered seven hits while going the distance for Northeastern.

Harvard had its opportunities. Hendricks grounded into a double play with men on first and second with one out in the second inning, and the Crimson failed to get any runs out of a similar one-out, first-and-second situation in the fourth.

It took two Northeastern miscues to bring Harvard's first run across. Pena dropped a Javy Lopez fly ball to open the bottom of the fifth, an error that landed Lopez on second base. He later trotted home from third on a balk by Burns to break the shutout.

The other Crimson run scored in the final frame, when senior Scott Farmer brought freshman Marc Hordon home from second with a sharp single off the third baseman's glove.

Walsh left the field upset with his team's overall performance at the Beanpot.

"You come out here flat and not aggressive and looking like you've got other things on your mind, it's all attitude," Walsh said. "It's coming from the inside. And that's something I take full responsibility for."

Senior right fielder Scott Carmack, sidelined for the second straight game with a fractured hand, was more upset by the way his collegiate career ended than anything.

"This is a team that should still be playing," Carmack said. "I hadn't even thought of the season ending until now."

Notes

With the defeat, the Crimson finishes the season with one more loss than last year's 18-25 squad... Hordon pinch hit for the second straight game. The freshman had started the year as a two-way player and led the team in strikeouts early in the year before arm problems sidelined him for most of the Crimson's stretch run... Hopps had a tough final game, striking out twice and letting several pitches get past behind behind the plate. In the middle of his last plate appearance, his bat sailed out of his grip and sailed back into the hands, nearly hitting the father of regular catcher Brian Lentz.