Baseball Sweeps Elis, Sits Alone in First

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—Senior pitcher Ben Crockett rediscovered his changeup on Saturday and helped the Harvard baseball team find itself in the process.

Buoyed by a weekend’s worth of excellent starting pitching, the Crimson snapped a 1-6 skid by sweeping its four-game series at Yale. The wins moved the Crimson into sole possession of first place in the Red Rolfe Division.

“We had it all come together this weekend,” Crockett said. “We combined clutch hitting with good defense and pitching. I’d say we’re very confident at this point in the season.”

Crockett had one of his sharpest outings of the year in an 8-3 Harvard win on Saturday. Featuring three quality pitches—including a refined offspeed delivery—he held Yale (9-21, 3-9 Ivy) to one hit through his first six innings of work and matched a career-high in strikeouts with 14.

Sophomore Marc Hordon, just activated off the Crimson’s injured list, almost matched Crockett’s mark in the early game yesterday, fanning 13 in a three-hit shutout of Yale. Harvard rode a four-run first inning to a 6-0 victory in that game before closing out the weekend with a 4-3 win in the series finale.

With the victory, Harvard moved a game ahead of Brown, who split its doubleheader with Dartmouth yesterday.

The Crimson (12-18, 9-3) will meet the Bears (20-17, 8-4) this weekend at O’Donnell Field in a showdown that could very well determine the division champion.

Harvard 4, Yale 3

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning, senior shortstop Mark Mager hit a bases-clearing double that gave the Crimson a 3-0 lead. A sacrifice fly one inning later by Bryan Hale produced Harvard’s fourth run and the Crimson bullpen held on to complete the weekend sweep of Yale.

Senior Chaney Sheffield, who impressed as a starter in place of Hordon against Columbia last Sunday, cruised in the early-going yesterday. He had five strikeouts through the first two innings and retired the side in order in the third.

But Sheffield ran into trouble in the fifth. A walk to centerfielder Chris Elkins loaded the bases and prompted his exit.

Sophomore Trey Hendricks moved to the mound from the DH spot. He walked in one run, but recorded a strikeout and induced a groundout to escape without further damage.

Hendricks allowed just two hits over the next 3.1 innings to earn his first win of the season. Junior Barry Wahlberg struck out Yale rightfielder C.J. Orrico with the sacks full in the ninth for his second save.

Harvard 6, Yale 0

Pitching in his first game in two weeks, Hordon showed a bit of rust when he walked Yale leadoff hitter Zac Bradley to start the bottom of the first.

It was a false omen of what was to come. Hordon set down the next 13 batters in a row and allowed just one runner past second base all afternoon.

“I was a little jittery at the beginning but I settled down after that and was able to throw some strikes,” Hordon said. “[Catcher] Mickey [Kropf] was able to frame some pitches to make me look good.”

Hordon broke his left hand in Harvard’s 6-2 win over Cornell on April 7 when he was hit by a pitch at the plate and then took a line drive off the same spot while pitching. The injury continues to prevent him from batting pending the results of an x-ray early this week, but he showed no indications that it interfered with his efforts on the hill yesterday.

“We made an effort as a staff to mix it up against the hitters this weekend and try to throw our offspeed stuff for strikes,” Hordon said.

The Crimson exploded for four runs in the top of the first on four consecutive RBI doubles. Mager, Hendricks, DH Schuyler Mann and third baseman Nick Carter all found the gaps to give the Crimson an early lead.

After struggling to come up with clutch hits during the Crimson’s recent slump, the heart of the Crimson order was highly productive this weekend.

The only exception prior to yesterday had been Carter, who went a combined 0-for-8 in Saturday’s doubleheader. But he joined the hit parade yesterday, going 4-for-8 in the twinbill.

The Crimson extended its lead by two runs in the second inning on a fielder’s choice grounder by Mager and an RBI single by Hendricks. The outburst chased Yale’s Matt McCarthy (2-3) from the game.

Bulldog reliever Doug Feller shut the Crimson out over the final 5.1 innings, but Yale was helpless against Hordon, who improved to 2-1.

Harvard 8, Yale 3

Crockett was a man among boys Saturday afternoon.

Through the first six innings, he had made exactly two mistakes. The first came in the bottom of the second on a pitch that Yale catcher Darren Beasley poked just out of the reach of a diving Mager for a single up the middle. The other was a fifth-inning offering that strayed too far inside on Yale first baseman Justin Walters and plunked him.

Those were Yale’s only two baserunners until the seventh inning. Only Beasley advanced past first, stealing second when Mann’s throw sailed a bit too high to apply the tag in time.

Crockett struck out 10 batters through the first six innings, featuring a healthy combination of three pitches that kept the Yale lineup befuddled.

“I had a changeup going the best I’ve had it in a while,” Crockett said. “I kind of lost it for a little bit [earlier this season].”

Crockett also had his usual menacing curveball and low-90s heater working for him.

“We have confidence to throw the curve in all situations, but a lot of times we don’t even need to because his fastball is so good,” Mann said of Crockett. “If there’s a really good hitter, we’ll throw the curve to catch him off guard. It works well because [Crockett] throws it so hard.”

The Harvard hitters gave Crockett plenty of run support Saturday, ripping three home runs off Yale rookie Josh Sowers.

Hendricks was the first to go deep with a shot to right-center to start the top of the second. Then, with two outs in the third, Hale ripped his second homer of the year to center. That blast put Harvard up 3-0.

The grandest shot of all came with Harvard ahead 5-0 in the sixth. Mann, who had doubled in his first at-bat, hit an absolute bomb to straightway left field. The moonshot hovered around the top of a lightstand when it cleared the fence and elicited a chorus of oohs and aahs from the Harvard dugout.

“It was 3-1 and I was sitting pretty,” Mann said of the at-bat. “I got a fastball and just jumped on it.”

The power surge took the pressure off Crockett, who started to show signs of mortality in the seventh, giving up a pair of runs on three hits. He probably should have escaped the inning with his shutout intact, but a Fortenbaugh fly ball to right field dropped in between Hale and Sheffield when neither called for it.

The fly ball would have been the second out of the inning. Crockett got the next hitter, Yale first baseman Kyle Misenti, to ground out for what would have then been the third out. Instead, the grounder plated a run and Yale’s next batter, Orrico, singled to drive in another.

Crockett ran into a little more difficulty in the eighth, as Yale strung together three consecutive singles up the middle to produce a run. The Elis left the bases loaded, though, as Crockett got Fortenbaugh swinging and Misenti on a ground ball to second.

Crockett, who attracted another couple dozen scouts to Yale Field for his start, confirmed yesterday that he feels no lingering effects from the elbow problems that first bothered him in the fall of 2000.

“It doesn’t cross my mind anymore,” Crockett said of the injury. “I’ve been continuing my conditioning programs on both my elbow and my shoulder. If anything, it’s an afterthought.”

Harvard 6, Yale 5

Senior Justin Nyweide (3-2) escaped a seventh-inning jam to gut out a complete-game victory in the series opener on Saturday.

A leadoff single by Chris Esper put the potential tying run on base and a one-out single by Orrico moved Esper into scoring position. But Nyweide got Beasley—Yale’s leading top run-producer with 21 RBI entering the weekend—to ground into a 6-4-3 double play that stranded Esper and ended the game.

The Crimson had taken a 6-3 lead in the fourth. Harvard batted around in the inning against Yale lefthander Craig Breslow and pushed across five runs.

Breslow had entered the weekend with the league’s lowest ERA (1.67). On Saturday, though, the Harvard hitters were patient with Breslow and it paid off. During the Crimson’s five-run fourth inning, the team drew three consecutive walks, all on 3-2 counts.

The last of the free passes—earned by Sheffield after falling behind 0-2 in the count—came with the bases loaded and forced in a run.

Mager, Hendricks and Lopez all singled to score the other four runs.

“We knew we needed to get into bullpens more and force starters to throw more,” Mann said. “It worked out well because Breslow’s a pretty good pitcher and we made him throw a lot of pitches.”

Breslow lasted all seven innings on Saturday, but Duke’s two-run homer off Nyweide in the seventh was all the scoring Yale could manage after the third.

Harvard 4, Yale 3

at Yale Field, New Haven, Conn.

Harvard (12-18, 9-3) 000 031 000—4 10 1

Yale (8-21, 3-9) 000 020 001—3 5 0

2B: H Kropf 1, Mager 1, Shakir 1. Y Duke 1. Pitchers: H Hendricks W 1-2. (4.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 K), Wahlberg (S 2). Y Elias 2-3 (5.1 IP, 4 ER, 6 K).

Attendance: 181

Harvard 6, Yale 0

at Yale Field, New Haven, Conn.

Harvard (11-18, 8-3) 420 000 0—6 10 0

Yale (8-20, 3-8) 000 000 0—0 3 3

2B: H Lopez 1, Mager 1, Mann 1, Hendricks 1, Carter 1, Kropf 1. Pitchers: H Hordon W 2-1 (7.0 IP, 0 ER, 13 K). Y McCarthy L 2-3 (1.2 IP, 4 ER, 2 K).

Attendance: 129

Harvard 8, Yale 3

at Yale Field, New Haven, Conn.

Harvard (10-18, 7-3) 012 201 002—8 10 0

Yale (8-19, 3-7) 000 000 210—3 9 2

HR: H Hale 1, Hendricks 1, Mann 1. 2B: H Lopez 2, Mager 1, Mann 1. Pitchers: H Crockett W 3-2 (9.0 IP, 3 ER, 14 K). Y Sowers L 1-3 (6.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 K).

Attendance: 212

Harvard 6, Yale 5

at Yale Field, New Haven, Conn.

Harvard (9-18, 6-3) 100 500 0—6 8 1

Yale (8-18, 3-6) 012 002 0—5 10 0

HR: Y Duke 1. 2B: H Mager 1, Hendricks 1. Y Elkins 1, Walters 1, Hirschfield 1. Pitchers: H Nyweide W 3-2 (7.0 IP, 5 ER, 9 K). Y Breslow L 1-3 (76.0 IP, 6 ER, 2 K).

Attendance: 287.