Baseball Earns All-Ivy Recognition

After sweeping Princeton last weekend, earning the Ivy title and an automatic bid for the NCAA tournament, the Harvard baseball team must now wait to see if it will be taking the Green line to Fenway or the Blue line to the Airport for its next game. The result of this weekend’s series between Boston College and Notre Dame for the Big East title may shed some light on the Crimson’s destination.

The NCAA is changing its selection procedures and will now announce the complete 64-team field before announcing the 16 host cites. Due to safety concerns following Sep. 11, this year, the host cites will be chosen to minimize air travel and teams will be sent to the closest NCAA Regional possible.

Should the Eagles take the series from the Fighting Irish this weekend, BC would be a likely host for the Northeast Regional. Harvard, with its proximity to Fenway Park, will most likely be a participant of the regional close-to-home.

“Either way it will be interesting to see how the selections come out,” captain Ben Crockett said. “But we are just excited to get a chance to play anywhere.”

Crockett and the Crimson have another thing to be excited about as Harvard’s ace and three teammates earned all-Ivy League honors on Tuesday.

Crockett was an unanimous choice for first-team All-Ivy honors and was chosen as co-Pitcher of the Year, an award he shares with Brown’s Jonathan Stern.

Crockett finished the regular season with five wins and three losses, a 2.86 ERA, and fanned a league-high 108 batters. He set Harvard records for strikeouts in a single game (17), in a career (254) and now sits just eight K’s shy of the Harvard single season record.

Stern finished the season with a 7-3 record, 3.72 ERA and 57 strike-outs, good enough for third in the league.

Crockett and Stern faced off in the Red Rolfe Division play-off on May 8, where the pair combined for 30 strike-outs. Crockett prevailed in the 2-1 contest while Stern picked up the loss.

“We came into the season to play hard the whole time [and] to win every game,” Crockett said. “We were not really thinking about the outcomes.”

Sophomore designated hitter Trey Hendricks joins Crockett on the first team roster. Hendricks led the team in slugging percentage (.571), was eighth in the league with a .371 batting average and also racked up 26 RBI, including 5 round-trippers. All-Ivy honors are nothing new to Hendricks, who earned an honorable mention as a freshman.

Senior shortstop Mark Mager and junior hurler Barry Wahlberg garnered honorable mention accolades for the Crimson. Mager, who led the team in runs scored (29), triples (3), hits (56), and RBI’s (29), was the only player to start all 44 games this season.

The righthander Wahlberg provided superb relief coming out of the bullpen for the Crimson, blanking 25 batters in as many innings and earning five saves in 14 plate appearances.

“We are pretty honored to have the guys we do on the team,” Crockett said of the All-Ivy honors. “Other teams may have more, but we are the ones with the title and that is all that matters.”

Brown and Dartmouth each had three first-teamers, while Princeton and Penn joined Harvard with two representatives. Cornell lone ranger on the first team was Player of the Year Erik Rico, a senior who both pitches and played the outfield for the Big Red.

The NCAA 64-team field will be announced on May 27 and Harvard will find out two days later if the Crimson will play on familiar grass or not.