Runs and Guns: Bats Help Crimson Split With Tigers

Stark white plumes from jet liners streaked across yesterday’s dazzling sky and breezy warmth drifted from the Charles River.

So when Harvard baseball coach Joe Walsh cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes with fatigue—“It was a real bad day of baseball,” he said solemnly—shortly after salvaging a Sunday split with defending Ivy League champion Princeton (10-15, 5-3 Ivy), the day went surprisingly chilly.

Harvard (14-8, 7-1) held onto a one-game Red Rolfe division lead after losing 7-2 to the Tigers in Game 1 of the doubleheader and winning a 13-8 error-fest in Game 2.

Despite the split, Walsh remained disappointed.

“We had breakdowns on the bases, on hit plays, our execution on bunt plays,” he said. “We just didn’t play good baseball today.”

Of Harvard’s winning scoring output of 13 in Game 2, only seven earned runs—two of them on Josh Klimkiewicz’ opposite-field moonshot in the fifth—counted against Princeton’s three pitchers.

The Tigers committed an astounding eight errors during Game 2—five by middle infielders Spencer Lucian (three) and Aaron Prince (two). During one stretch in the seventh inning, errors were committed on four consecutive Crimson balls put in play.

“I don’t feel really good about wins like that,” Walsh said.

Showdowns against city rivals Boston College and Northeastern take place tomorrow and Wednesday afternoons at O’Donnell Field at 3 p.m. before Ivy League action resumes versus Yale on Saturday.

HARVARD 13, PRINCETON 8

Klimkiewicz’ hammer-swing on a high and away fastball—which came to a complete stop somewhere in the Gordon Tennis Center parking lot—reinvigorated a stale Harvard offense in the fifth inning of Game 2 and gave the Crimson a 5-5 tied score, not to mention some relief for Walsh.

“Up until then, we really had been having things gift-wrapped to us,” Walsh said. “And finally, we earned one on the two-run homer.”

Indeed, Princeton’s defense in the inning prior to that play—with a failed double-play attempt on Crimson freshman Matt Vance and a dropped ground ball on junior Morgan Brown—led to two runs. Errors also led to Harvard’s first score in inning three.

But the worst of Princeton’s defensive disgrace had yet to arrive.

Consecutive bunt singles in the sixth by Vance and Brown loaded the bases and, after a bases-loaded walk to Harvard pinch hitter Frank Herrmann scored the go-ahead run for the Crimson, Princeton pitcher Steven Miller yielded a gap double to junior Lance Salsgiver. Harvard exited the inning with a 9-5 lead but had picked up a tip on bunting against a wobbly Princeton infield.

“We came in here actually knowing that they were kind of shaky,” said Salsgiver, who finished an impressive three-for-four in Game 2. “It worked out.”

And so, when consecutive bunts in the seventh—this time by backup catcher Andrew Casey and Vance, again—resulted in errors, the Crimson put on the pressure. Brown reached on a shortstop miss-throw and second baseman Taylor Meehan reached on Prince’s second error.

By the time the carnage had ceased, four more runs padded a 13-6 Harvard lead.

Princeton hit three solo home runs during Game 2—including one by Will Venable, whose second of the day towered over the right-field shrubbery.

Harvard freshman Shawn Haviland (4-1) allowed five runs, only three earned independently of the Crimson’s four errors, to earn his team-leading fourth victory of the season.

PRINCETON 7, HARVARD 2

Entering the day undefeated in Ivy play, Harvard finally succumbed to pitcher Erik Stiller and Princeton with a 7-2 loss.

Venable went two-for-three and scored three runs for Princeton. He also ripped a high line-drive home run off Crimson starter Matt Brunnig (1-1), his sixth of the season.

“Venable’s a tremendous player, prospect, and athlete,” Walsh said of last year’s 15th-round draft choice of the Baltimore Orioles. “When you go up there and get behind on a player 2-0 like that, [and] throw the ball down the middle there, he knows what to do with it.”

Only Klimkiewicz, with two solid doubles, hit the ball with relative authority for Harvard during the game. Captain Schuyler Mann had the team’s only RBI, with a single in the fourth.

Facing a 5-2 deficit in the bottom of the fifth, however, sophomore Rob Nelson pinch-hit with a runner on first and one out. Nelson smoked a line drive that was snagged by Tiger shortstop Lucian.

“If that had gone a little bit of left-center, who knows?” Walsh said. We might have got a lid off [of the scoring].”

Senior Curtis Miller and sophomores Jake Bruton and Jason Brown finished the game in relief for the Crimson, which dropped to 6-1.

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