Baseball Eliminated from NCAAs

HOUSTON—When asked why he thought Harvard Coach Joe Walsh had saved his ace, senior Ben Crockett, for the second game of NCAAs instead of pitching him in the opener against his top-seeded Owls, Rice Coach Wayne Graham thought for a moment.

“That showed me that [Walsh] wanted to win the tournament, not just a game,” Graham said.

Whether or not Graham’s guess was on target, the Crimson would escape with neither. Even with Crockett on the mound, the Washington Huskies rode a two-out, four-run rally in the fourth inning to defeat the Crimson, 4-2, in the second game of the NCAA Regional Playoffs in front of 2,062 at Rice’s Reckling Park.

Crockett ended his Crimson career in a manner typical of his four years in a Harvard uniform—with a gritty, complete-game performance. But with two outs in the fourth inning and the Crimson ahead 1-0, the Huskies started to hit him hard, beginning with Jay Garthwaite’s double to deep left. The next batter, John Otness tore a double to left-center that hit the wall between sophomore outfielders Marc Hordon and Bryan Hale, tying the game at 1-1.

“I was inconsistent with my curveball,” Crockett said. “My fastball was solid, and I had a pretty good change-up, but I was too inconsistent with my offspeed pitches. I wasn’t able to get ahead and I got rattled a little.”

The hit parade continued for Washington as Aaron Hathaway knocked an RBI single off the right-field wall to give the Huskies the lead.

Then disaster struck for the Crimson and freshman right fielder Ian Wallace.

With the Crimson still an out away from ending the inning, Wallace misjudged a hard-hit ball by Washington’s Greg Isaacson. Wallace took a few steps inward, then was forced to scramble back as the ball landed a few steps behind him and began to roll toward the wall.

The end result was a triple that extended the inning for first baseman Taylor Johnson, who bunted the ball perfectly on the next play. Crockett fielded the slow roller and threw to first, but first base umpire Randy Harvey ruled that Crockett’s toss pulled senior Josh San Salvador off the bag, scoring the Huskies’ fourth and final run.

“I thought we had a chance to win it all the way,” Walsh said. “In the fourth inning, we didn’t do a lot of things right.”

Crockett settled down after that, and Trey Hendricks’ first-pitch solo shot over the right field wall—his sixth dinger of the year—narrowed the deficit to two runs.

But Harvard was not able to do much else against the Huskies’ Sean White (7-2), who won his sixth straight game by scattering seven hits and striking out six.

“Give Washington some credit,” Walsh said. “Their pitcher was outstanding. We couldn’t do enough against him.”

Crockett allowed ten hits, struck out nine and held the Huskies’ 3-4-5 batters hitless in 12 at-bats. Crockett registered his 117th strikeout of the season in the ninth inning, setting a new single-season record formerly held by Ray Peters ’68.

“Crockett did a great job, not only today, but for the entire season, for his entire career,” Walsh said. “He’s the No. 1 pitcher on any ballclub, and he’s certainly our No. 1. He showed that today.”

Senior shortstop Mark Mager also secured a spot in the annals of Harvard baseball history, collecting his 208th career hit in the bottom of the ninth with a single to right, tying the mark set by Hal Carey ‘99.

Wallace gave the Crimson an early lead with a single to left on a 1-2 count that scored Hale from third. Hale, a native of Seattle, had tripled down the right field line off the team he grew up following.

“It was definitely a little bit emotional,” Hale said. “We’re season-ticket holders for the basketball and football teams. I probably know 75 percent of the team.”

More emotional for Walsh was the end of the season for his ten seniors.

“The disappointing thing is that we had a lot of good seniors on this club,” Walsh said. “I really feel for those guys. We were really planning on playing Saturday night.”