Comebacks Keep Baseball in Race

Don’t call them the Cardiac Kids.

That nickname is taken—and the Harvard baseball team, which has recently learned that no late deficit is too steep to overcome, seems to be taking things easy, anyway.

“It’s just another Harvard game,” laughed Harvard head coach Joe Walsh who, moments after an Ian Wallace suicide squeeze beat Brown 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth yesterday afternoon, watched his players celebrate, slap hands, give hugs, and generally go nuts. “We had it all the way.”

Harvard (18-15-1, 11-5 Ivy), which dropped the first of four to Brown in a 9-6 Saturday loss, came back to take three in a row against the third-place Bears (13-21, 8-8 Ivy) on Saturday and yesterday afternoons. And that run was punctuated with plenty of late fireworks and dramatic comebacks.

On Saturday afternoon, the Crimson overcame an improbable six-run deficit—they were down 9-3 in the bottom of the eighth—to beat the Bears 10-9 on senior Trey Hendricks’ walk-off ground rule double in the bottom of the ninth. Junior Schuyler Mann went 3-for-4 in the win.

On Sunday, Hendricks pitched a complete game, giving up one earned run and striking out eight to earn a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of the second doubleheader. But yesterday’s Game 2 provided the rest of the drama.

After giving up three runs—and the lead—to Brown in the top of the ninth, the Crimson had the bottom of the order up with an 8-5 deficit to overcome

After a leadoff fly-out to center, seven consecutive Harvard hitters reached base, pushing four runs across—capped by Wallace’s game-winning bunt down the first baseline.

With that, the Crimson held onto its two-game deficit in the standings to Red Rolfe division rival Dartmouth—which beat Yale twice yesterday, 11-1 and 11-0—going into next weekend’s pivotal four-game, Ivy season-ending showdown against the Big Green.

Harvard will have to win three of four to tie Dartmouth in the standings at season’s end. There is no tiebreaker based on head-to-head record, so the teams would have to play the division title out. If the Crimson sweeps, it will take the Red Rolfe division outright.

Princeton, which plays Cornell in four games next weekend, just needs to take one to clinch the Lou Gehrig division.

The Ivy League Championship series will be held May 8-9.

HARVARD 9, BROWN 8

Harvard scored four in the ninth off three Brown pitchers to beat the Bears 9-8 yesterday afternoon at O’Donnell Field, providing fans with plenty of late excitement.

Despite leading off the bottom of the ninth inning with its 7-8-9 hitters at the plate, the Crimson overcame its three-run deficit thanks, in part, to costly mistakes by the opposing team. Brown committed an error, hit Hendricks with a pitch, and let three Harvard hitters reach base on walks.

“You’ve really got to win those ugly games to be successful,” said sophomore Zak Farkes, who scored the winning run.

Hendricks (8-1) got the win in relief, his second of the day. Despite having a complete game in Game 1, he entered to pitch the ninth in Game 2 after sophomore Morgan Brown and freshman Rob Nelson failed to stem the Bears’ ninth-inning rally.

“I did not want to bring him in the second game at all,” Walsh said of Hendricks. “But he’s just staring down at me every time, [seeming to say] ‘Put me in, put me in.’ I knew he could come in and throw strikes.”

Sophomore Lance Salsgiver, making his first career start, had control problems and only pitched two innings, surrendering two runs and two walks. Sophomore Javier Castellanos was effective in relief, pitching five innings and striking out seven.

“I thought Javy did a real good job for us,” Walsh said. “He passed it for five innings in the middle, there, gave us a chance to come back, and we did.”

Mann hit two home runs, giving him six for the season. Farkes hit a solo shot, giving him 10—and tying him for the Harvard single-season record for home runs. In his second year on the team, he is already three short of the career record of 21.

HARVARD 5, BROWN 2

Hendricks pitched seven effective innings in Game 1 of yesterday’s doubleheader, earning a 5-2 complete game win over Brown.

Farkes went 3-for-4 for the Crimson, and Mackey hit his first home run of the year. Mann, who went 5-for-8 on Saturday, continued his hot hitting with a first-inning RBI single. “I felt confident coming in after a day like yesterday,” Mann said.

Mann raised his season average to .300 with yesterday’s performance. The junior from Corvallis, Mont., is doing his best hitting of the year at late season.

“He’s swinging the bat real well,” Walsh said. “He’s patient up there up at the plate.”

The Crimson scored two in the first off of Mann’s single and an RBI double by Hendricks. And thanks to the latter’s continued reliability on the mound, the team never relinquished the lead.

After Brown shortstop Jeff Nichols led off the second with a solo shot to left field, Hendricks didn’t allow an earned run for the rest of the game.

The Crimson stretched its lead to 4-1 in the second, when Bryan Hale reached on a leadoff triple, and a hit-batsman and walk loaded the bases for Farkes, who grounded a 2-2 pitch up the middle for a two-RBI single.

The teams traded runs in the fourth, with Harvard’s coming on Mackey’s home run.

Hendricks improved to 7-1 with the win.

HARVARD 10, BROWN 9

All of the clutch hits and big wins on yesterday would have meant nothing if it weren’t for Saturday.

Staring at a 9-3, eighth-inning deficit, the Crimson needed a miracle to keep its title hopes alive another day—and with a little help from Brown’s defense, that’s exactly what it got.

Harvard scored six runs in the eighth inning on three hits, a pair of walks and three Brown errors to tie the score at 9-9, then won the game in the ninth on a walk-off ground rule double by Hendricks. With the score knotted at 9-9 and one out, Hale and Farkes reached on back-to-back walks, putting the winning in run in scoring position. And Hendricks took care of the rest.

“I’ll tell you what,” Walsh said, “every time we play Brown, it is unbelievable.”

The comeback started when Jeff Friedman led off the eighth with a pinch-hit walk. A single by Brendan Byrne and a walk to Hale loaded the bases for Farkes, who drove in Friedman on a single to left. Hendricks then drove a sacrifice fly to right field to pull the score to 9-5.

Three errors—two on throws attempting to catch stealing runners—and a walk to Mann scored two more runs, and the third scored on a sacrifice fly by Hordon.

Salsgiver (1-0), who pitched a scoreless ninth inning of relief for the Crimson, earned the win.

Senior Mike Morgalis went the first three innings for Harvard, allowing six runs, only three of which were earned, before being relieved by sophomore Frank Herrmann in the fourth. Herrmann—usually a Sunday starter—allowed three earned runs over five innings of long relief.

Paul Christian went 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBI to pace the Bears, who rapped out 13 hits in the loss.

BROWN 9, HARVARD 6

The same sloppy defense that plagued the Crimson in three losses at Yale last weekend returned, as four infield errors led to six unearned runs in an ugly start to the weekend.

Harvard entered the fifth inning with a 3-1 lead and freshman Jake Bruton—impressing in his first league start—on the mound. But then trouble started.

With one out, Christian reached on an error by Farkes, and a single by Wiginton put runners on first and second. Bruton then got Deeb—the Bears’ No. 3 hitter and career hits leader—to chop a perfect double play ball to junior second baseman Ian Wallace. But Wallace fumbled the ball twice trying to pick it up, and never made a throw, loading the bases.

Cleanup man Danny Hughes then lined a three-RBI double to the left-center gap, giving the Bears the lead and chasing Bruton from the ball game. Brown scored twice more in the inning off of three straight hits—the first off reliever Curtis Miller, the second two off of senior Jason Brown—before a strikeout ended the inning.

Trailing 9-3 entering the seventh, the Crimson made it interesting. After Hendricks reached base on a fielder’s choice and Mann on single, Hordon came to the plate with two on and two out. He fell behind 0-2—the second strike coming on a vicious swing at a fastball high and out of the zone—before blasting a three-run homer to pull the score to 9-6. Herrmann popped up to end the game.

The Crimson plated three runs in the first inning, highlighted by a home run by Farkes—his ninth of the season—and two Brown errors.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.

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