Metrodome Welcomes Crimson for First Game

Like it has all winter, the Harvard baseball team will be playing inside once again this weekend. But the venue will be nicer than the makeshift batting cages of Palmer-Dixon.

A lot nicer.

The Crimson kicks off its season in style this afternoon at the Metrodome, home of the Minnesota Twins.

“It’s going to be awesome playing in a professional park,” said senior Rob Wheeler, a Minneapolis native. “Especially when you grew up watching games there. To get the chance to come home and play in the Metrodome my senior year, I can’t think of anything better.”

The four-team Metrodome Classic, hosted by Minnesota, features No. 21 Louisiana-Lafayette and St. John’s, along with the Crimson and host Gophers.

Harvard will face its toughest test in the tourney opener against the Ragin’ Cajuns (14-2) today at 1 p.m.

ULL opened the season ranked No. 47 by Baseball America, but reeled off 14-straight wins to climb up the rankings and solidify its spot as the team to beat in the Sunbelt Conference.

Junior Javier Castellanos—a hard-throwing right hander with better stuff than stats—will get the ambitious task of shutting down a ULL offense that outscored the Crimson 37-14 in a pair of games last season.

“I like the choice,” said junior Frank Herrmann, who will take the mound in Harvard’s Sunday game. “He’s a confident player, and you definitely need that in this kind of game. I think the choice by [Harvard] coach [Joe Walsh] was the right one.”

Castellanos was inconsistent last season, finishing the year 0-1 with a 7.39 ERA, but got stronger as the year progressed, contributing solid innings during the Ivy stretch run.

“He’s looked good,” Wheeler said of Castellanos’ recent bullpen sessions. “He throws hard, and he’s got nasty breaking stuff. Javy C. is the kind of guy that can go out and shut down any team in the country.”

ULL will start freshman Buddy Glass (1-0, 3.72 ERA)—a right-hander with only two career appearances—against a Harvard lineup that should once again be the team’s strength.

The heart of the lineup features the program’s top two single-season home run leaders, junior shortstop Zak Farkes and captain and catcher Sky Mann, who blasted 14 and 11 homers last year, respectively. No other Crimson slugger had ever hit more than 10.

“Obviously, [ULL] beat us as bad as any team beat us last year,” Herrmann said. “So we’ve got nothing to lose. We’re going to go out there and play loose.”

“We’ve got a lineup that can hit,” he added. “If we can jump out and get some runs early, we could surprise them.”

Saturday the Crimson will take on the Red Storm (6-4) at 1 p.m., the Northeast’s only at-large bid in last year’s NCAA tournament. Freshman Shawn Haviland will get the nod.

Herrmann will face the Golden Gophers (1-5) in the weekend’s finale Sunday at 3 p.m.

“I’m really excited,” Herrmann said. “Last year we didn’t’ get the chance to play in Fenway, and that was pretty disappointing, though I think we’re going back this year. But now, when I watch the Twins on TV I can say, ‘Yeah, I played there.’”

SHORT HOPS

It has been a rough start to the season for the Ivy squads already in play. Led by Penn (0-5), the Ivy League has combined to open the year 0-16 through yesterday….Defending Ivy champion Princeton (0-2) opened its season with a pair of one-run losses to Richmond last weekend, but kicks its schedule into high gear with 10 games in 10 days over its Southern spring break swing beginning this afternoon at William and Mary….Defending Red Rolfe division champ Dartmouth won’t open its season until March 17 after a pair of games against Lafayette scheduled for last weekend were cancelled due to inclement weather.

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