Hendricks Shines in Key Pitching Duel

At the start of yesterday’s second game between Harvard and Cornell, Big Red pitcher Chris Schutt had everything going for him.

He had already smashed his first homer of the season hours earlier in a 12-0 Cornell blowout, and now he had 10 scouts with radar guns there to see him pitch. He was facing a Harvard lineup reeling from an embarrassing five-hit performance. He had all the momentum.

Two hours later—courtesy of Crimson junior ace Trey Hendricks—he had a loss, just how Harvard coach Joe Walsh had planned.

“I was going to matchup Trey with Schutt,” Walsh said. “I thought the best kid we were going to face [in the weekend’s four games] was Schutt, and we wanted Hendricks against him.”

Hendricks (2-1) tossed the first eight innings of the Crimson’s 3-1 win, allowing one run on seven hits. He showed power (11 strikeouts), control (one walk) and grit (one hit allowed with runners in scoring position).

“I didn’t think we were going to come back in the second game, except for Trey,” Walsh said. “I think Trey pitched so well because of [the scouts there to see] Schutt. He was pumped up.”

Hendricks’ catcher thought he pitched well for another reason.

“I think he was up because he was mad about the first game,” sophomore Schuyler Mann said.

There was plenty to be mad about. The Crimson lineup—including Hendricks—had been checked by the relatively unknown Dan Basinger, who entered the game with a 6.00 ERA, and its staff had been rocked by a Cornell lineup with the lowest team batting average in the Ivy League.

Still Hendricks wasn’t mad enough to be out of control.

The same hitters that had torched a quartet of Crimson hurlers for 18 hits an hour earlier could not handle a steady dose of Hendricks’ 85-87-mph fastballs just below their knees.

When the Big Red batters weren’t missing entirely, they were usually topping the ball, and in the final two innings, when his pitch count started to creep towards triple digits, Hendricks picked up five of six outs on grounders.

“He kept everything down, so we were able to go in and out on guys,” Mann said. “And he did it mostly all with his fastball.”

Low fastballs and lots of strikeouts were the trademarks of Ben Crockett ’02—last year’s Ivy Co-Pitcher of the Year. Though no one expects Hendricks to be Crockett, Walsh does have a legitimate No. 1 pitcher again.

The former all-Texas high school hurler once said he thought pitching was easier than hitting. Now he leads the team in ERA (2.43) and opponents’ batting average (.273), along with all of the triple crown categories.

Hendricks was not a frontline starting pitcher in his first two seasons and concluded last year 1-3 with a 4.66 ERA. But Walsh insists he’s not surprised with his success.

“There were some good colleges down in Houston that liked him more as a pitcher than as a position player,” Walsh said. “We brought him in here to bat, but it just kind of worked out this year.”

Not everything has worked out for the pitching staff, especially in the No. 4 spot where the continued shoulder soreness of freshman Matt Brunnig led to another emergency start by senior Matt Self in game one yesterday. Self couldn’t reconjure last weekend’s magic, and the Crimson was left scrambling.

There are still questions, but perhaps the most important one has been answered. Walsh’s ace is his cleanup hitter.

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.