Division Title at Stake for Baseball v. Big Green

With Brown leading by eight runs, minutes away from winning a rain-shortened game, destiny intervened.

Now the Crimson controls its own destiny.

The Harvard men’s baseball team (15-21, 11-5 Ivy) leads Brown (22-21, 10-6 Ivy) by one game in the race for the Red Rolfe division title and an all important playoff berth.

“We are really excited and happy about how the series with Brown turned out,” said captain Ben Crockett. “We are now in control of our own destiny and that’s all we ever wanted.”

Each team has four games remaining in the regular season. While the Bears face Yale in a doubleheader home-and-home series today and tomorrow, the Crimson host Dartmouth (18-18, 7-9 Ivy) in a doubleheader tomorrow before driving up I-93 for another double-tilt on Sunday.

Harvard will need to sweep the Big Green to guarantee itself a division title. If Harvard takes three of four from Dartmouth and Brown sweeps Yale, a one-game playoff for the Red Rolfe championship would take place. A split of the weekend series with the Big Green will open the door for Brown to clinch the title and the final playoff spot outright.

Despite facing the slimmest margin for error, the Crimson knows it is lucky to be in control of its own destiny entering the final weekend of the season.

With the Crimson trailing by 10-2 midway through the sixth inning of Tuesday’s series finale with Brown, a downpour of rain threatened to end the game prematurely and give the Bears a one-game lead heading into the weekend.

Two or three more minutes of rain would have forced the game to be called short, awarding Brown the win.

Auspicously for the the Crimson, the deluge slowed to a trickle and allowed the game to continue.

Seizing the opportunity, Harvard rallied to tie the game 12-12 in the bottom of the ninth before senior first baseman Josh San Salvador crushed a high offering from Bears junior right-hander Dan Spring out of the park to complete the 13-12 come-from-behind victory.

“It is a tough situation when you get down early,” Crockett said. “You’ve got to have faith in those situations and we were lucky enough to get some big hits. The home runs really helped.”

San Salvador was playing in just his second game since returning from a partially torn ACL he suffered in just the second week of the season. The game-winning shot was San Salvador’s second home run of the game. He nailed a three-run shot in the seventh inning, cutting Brown’s lead to one run.

How the Crimson responds to Tuesday’s emotional win will go a long way towards determining how much baseball Harvard has left in its season.

The Crimson must be careful to avoid an emotional lull this weekend against Dartmouth.

“I hope it won’t be possible to have a letdown this weekend,” Crockett said. “All we did with the Brown series was put ourselves in a position to win. We know it wasn’t the be all and end all. We’ve got the biggest weekend of the season coming up now.”

Harvard will rely once again on Crockett’s arm to lead the Crimson pitching squad. The right-hander fanned a record 17 batters and threw 140 pitches in a 6-5 loss to Brown last Saturday. He came on in relief Tuesday to register the final two outs, both strikeouts, and pickup the win.

Crockett has been a workhorse for the Crimson all season, tossing a team-high 57 innings, three complete games, and 79 strikeouts to go along with a 3.32 ERA.

On the other side of the ball, sophomore first baseman Trey Hendricks will be asked to spearhead the Harvard attack.

Hendricks leads the team with a .373 batting average, 24 RBIs, and five home runs. He is coming off a 3-for-4 performance with 3 runs batted in on Tuesday.

Dartmouth is not as strong as it has been in past years, but it still presents a formitable challenge for the Crimson.

“Dartmouth is a very young team, but they still have a solid pitching staff,” Crockett said. “All four starters on their staff are strong.”

If the Crimson hopes to sweep, it will need to rely on its starting line-up.

“Their position players are especially young,” Crockett said. “Our depth and strength there should give us the edge.”

Quiet confidence are the words that best describe Crockett and his outlook for the weekend.

“I’m confident in our pitching staff,” Crockett said. “I’m confident in our ability to get the job done, and I’m confident that in terms of talent we have the edge.”

The Crimson hopes his words and his pitches will be right on target.

Notes

Harvard’s scheduled game with UMass in Amherst at 3pm yesterday was postponed due to rain. The game will be made up next Thursday May 9 at 3pm.