Division Title at Stake for Baseball

The first four games this season between Harvard and Brown provided pageantry, drama and record-breaking performances, but the fifth game will produce something far more important—a Red Rolfe Division champion.

The Crimson (17-23, 13-7 Ivy) hosts the Bears (25-22, 13-7) for the fifth time in two weeks today at 3 p.m. in a one-game playoff for the Red Rolfe Division title. The winner earns a berth in the best-of-three Ivy League championship series against Lou Gehrig Division champion Princeton beginning Saturday.

The Crimson and the Bears split last week’s series, with the four games being decided by a total of five runs. Harvard entered last weekend a game ahead of Brown, but the Bears took three of four from Yale, while Harvard split with Dartmouth to set up the one-game playoff.

“What we need are a lot of heroes,” said senior second baseman Faiz Shakir, who compared today’s game with Game 3 of the 1999 Ivy League championships, in which Harvard used a ninth-inning rally to beat Princeton, 8-7. “In that game we had a lot of heroes, not just one guy.”

Captain and staff ace Ben Crockett (5-3) will try to be one of those heroes as he takes the mound for Harvard, starting on three days rest for the first time in his collegiate career. Though Crockett doesn’t know how far into the game he’ll go, he is confident that the Crimson will find a way to pull out the win.

“Whether I’ll have a predetermined pitch count or a certain number of innings, I don’t know,” Crockett said. “I don’t really know if I have any prediction for what’s going to happen, other than we’re going to win the game.”

Crockett has made two appearances against the Bears this season, with mixed results.

He struck out a Harvard single-game record 17 batters in his only start against Brown on April 27, but allowed 12 hits and six earned runs in the 6-5 loss.

Three days later, with the Crimson and the Bears knotted at 12 with one out and a runner on second in the ninth, Crockett made a rare relief appearance. He struck out both batters he faced, and picked up the win when senior first baseman Josh San Salvador blasted a walk-off solo home run leading off the bottom of the ninth.

Should Crockett tire, senior Justin Nyweide, sophomore Kenon Ronz and junior Barry Wahlberg will be available to relieve him.

Although Nyweide (4-3) has been roughed up in his last two outings—one coming in relief against Brown last Tuesday—he earned a victory in his only start against the Bears. Out of the pen, Ronz and Wahlberg have combined to allow two hits and one earned run in four and two-thirds innings against Brown.

On the mound for the Bears will most likely be senior right-hander Jonathan Stern. He is coming off of a five-hit, complete-game victory over Yale on Friday, and will be throwing on four days rest if he gets the nod.

Stern, the Bears’ ace, has a 7-3 record and a 3.72 ERA, but lost his only start against Harvard. He allowed eight hits and three earned runs while pitching all six innings of the 4-2 loss. All three runs, though, came in the first inning, when sophomore Trey Hendricks and freshman Schuyler Mann belted home runs.

The Crimson will once again be looking to get to Stern early.

“In the last game, [Stern] was very effective and very tough,” Shakir said. “But we had a good first inning against him. Hopefully we can get some runs early off of him again.”

Stern will face a Harvard lineup that has struggled at times to produce runs.

In four games against Dartmouth last weekend, the Crimson averaged just three runs despite picking up almost eight hits per game. No Crimson player had more than two RBI in the four-game series.

Harvard’s most consistent offensive threat has been Hendricks, who has played primarily as the team’s designated hitter since San Salvador returned from an ACL injury. Hendricks leads the Crimson with a .362 batting average and five home runs. Mann is the only other Harvard regular hitting above .300.

With Crockett on the mound, though, it might not take many runs to win.

“I think we are going to come into the game with a different offensive game plan. If the lead-off guy gets on in the first inning, you might see us sacrifice bunt.” Shakir said. “You are going to see every run mean something.”