Baseball Risks Perfect Ivy Mark

The Harvard baseball team looks to continue its Ivy League success in its first home games of the season, against Penn and Columbia tomorrow and Sunday.

The Crimson (7-13, 4-0 Ivy) has posted a 4-2 record after spring break, including doubleheader sweeps of Princeton and Cornell. Harvard now stands atop the Red Rolfe division and is the only undefeated Ivy team remaining going into the weekend’s competition.

“The intensity’s there,” junior pitcher Madhu Saty said. “These are the games that will make or break our season.”

But the team’s overall success has been limited thus far by an unpredictable offense. The Crimson bats sprung to life last weekend to outscore its opposition by 14 runs. The hitting then disappeared in the Wednesday game against Holy Cross, where Harvard managed just five hits and one unearned run in a 2-1 loss. The Crimson is batting a paltry .232 as a team this season.

Harvard sorely missed the bat of sophomore first baseman Marc Hordon against the Crusaders. Hordon, who leads the team with his .361 average and 22 hits, broke his hand when he was hit by a pitch in the game against Cornell on April 7. The team hopes for his return for the next weekend’s Ivy match-up with Yale.

Taking his place in the field will likely be either sophomore Trey Hendricks or one of the catchers, sophomore Mickey Kropf or freshman Schuyler Mann.

“Losing Marc is a tough blow, but we have plenty of guys who can step up and fill the void,” Saty said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in our hitters.”

No one besides Hordon has managed to hold an average above .300 for the Crimson thus far. Kropf and senior Chaney Sheffield are tied for second on the team with .298 averages. The lack of break-out power so far in the season—Hendricks leads Harvard with two home runs this year—and the meager offensive output on Wednesday has led a return to small ball in practices this week.

“We definitely worked on bunting, hit-and-run type stuff, which is the type of style we want to play,” senior Faiz Shakir said. “We’ve put more emphasis on getting runners on and moving them over, stealing, hit-and-runs, bunts.”

Shakir, the regular starting second baseman, is nursing a severely sprained finger, but he hopes to play over the weekend.

“If I can bend it just a little bit, I’m going to try to play,” Shakir said.

If he is unable to start, freshman Ian Wallace will likely take his place. Seniors Andrew Brunswick, a reserve outfielder and Josh San Salvador are also out of commission. San Salvador is waiting to see if his injured knee will require surgery.

Stellar pitching has been helping the Crimson plug the holes in its lineup this year. The starters remain unconcerned with the inconsistent offense, instead maintaining an realistic attitude.

“The run support will be there some days and not on others, just like on any other team,” Saty said. “Hopefully the hitters will come out with a lot of intensity and attack the pitcher this weekend.”

Hoping to continue the pitching success, Harvard will start seniors Justin Nyweide (2-2) and captain Ben Crockett (2-1) for Saturday’s competitions.

Both hurlers won their last starts, the Princeton doubleheader, with dominating performances. Crockett leads the staff with 35 strikeouts in 30 innings, while Nyweide has 27 punch-outs in 28.2 innings of work.

Right-handed hurler Saty (1-1) will start game one on Sunday against Columbia. Saty pitched two perfect innings in relief during the Holy Cross game.

The Crimson has not yet determined who will take the mound for the nightcap, but the probable starter is junior righty Barry Wahlberg (1-2), who has enjoyed particular success in relief so far this season.

Meanwhile, Penn has a 7-19 record coming into play, having defeated La Salle in a 13-11 hitfest yesterday. The Quakers sit at the bottom of the Lou Gehrig division with a 2-6 Ivy record.

Penn will start senior righty Mike Mattern (1-0) in the first game before calling upon all-Ivy junior Andrew McCreery (0-4) for the second contest. Last year, McCreery led the Quakers to a 14-2 victory over Harvard. The righty allowed just five hits in his dominating complete-game performance.

In contrast to Penn’s disappointing start, Columbia (13-13, 3-1 Ivy) is tied with Princeton for first the Lou Gehrig division.

The Lions dropped their most recent game, against St. John’s on Wednesday. Columbia lost a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth, when two costly errors led to six runs.

The Crimson split the doubleheader against Columbia last season. The Lions will first travel to Dartmouth for a doubleheader on Saturday before arriving in Cambridge.