Crimson Offense Blanked by Eagles

By the time the snow started to fall in the eighth inning of a blustery game on the South side of the Charles, it was all too clear.

Harvard’s bats weren’t going to warm up.

Continuing its offensive struggles from the weekend, the Crimson (14-9) managed just six hits in a 6-0 loss to cross-town rival Boston College (21-9) at O’Donnell Field yesterday afternoon.

Eagles starter Terry Doyle (4-0) pitched seven stellar innings to earn the win, frustrating Harvard hitters with an impressive curveball on his way to 10 strikeouts.

“He had a good hammer and did a real good job on us,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “He’s a local kid that I’ve seen a lot of and knew he’d be real tough, but he’s gained some velocity.”

Doyle got an early cushion thanks to a few Crimson miscues.

With BC leading 1-0 with one down in the top of the second, Harvard freshman starter Brad Unger hit Shawn McGill and gave up a double to Mike Flynn to put runners on second and third for Ryne Reynoso, who scored McGill with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.

The damage could have ended there.

Unger got the No. 9 hitter Jonny Weiss to chop what should have been an inning-ending grounder to third baseman Steffan Wilson, but Wilson’s throw skipped past junior Josh Klimkiewicz at first, scoring Flynn and advancing Weiss to second. A balk, a walk, a passed ball and a pair of hits later, it was 6-0 BC, and the Crimson could never recover.

“As much as it didn’t look it by looking at the scoreboard, I thought Unger pitched well,” Walsh said. “He pounded the strike zone. It was a tough day out there [but he pitched well], so did Jason Brown and Jake Bruton.”

Unger (1-2)—who allowed only two earned runs on five hits and three walks—was replaced by Brown to open the fifth. The sophomore allowed only two hits in three innings of scoreless relief, before yielding the mound to Bruton, who closed out the final two frames.

Harvard had its chances at the plate, especially early.

With the Crimson trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, freshman Matt Vance was hit by a pitch to open the game, and—after Doyle threw to first multiple times—promptly proceeded to steal second. After Wilson walked, Walsh called for the double steal, and Vance slid into third under the throw from McGill, putting two runners in scoring position with the heart of the order up.

But after walking Klimkiewicz to load the bases, Doyle caught captain Schuyler Mann—who had just launched a ball to the right of the right field foul pole—looking at strike three. Designated hitter Frank Herrmann went down swinging for the final out.

“We tried to get running early, and we had three [steals] there in the first inning,” Walsh said. “But when you get down six, you just can’t do that anymore.

It was more of the same in the third inning.

With Harvard behind 6-0, Vance and Wallace opened the inning with matching singles, and a walk to Klimkiewicz loaded the bases with one out. But Doyle bore down again, striking out Mann and getting Herrmann to ground into an inning-ending forceout.

“We had our chances today obviously,” Walsh said. “We had middle of the lineup guys up with bases loaded and one out. You get a couple of hits there, it might have got us back in the game.”

Wallace finished with two hits, the only Harvard player with more than one.

The senior also provided what may have been the Crimson’s best moment of the day, a diving stab in left field to rob Jared McGuire of a sure double in the seventh.

But it wasn’t enough.

“We just couldn’t put anything on the board,” Walsh said. “That kid just stopped us today. It was a tough day.”

SHORT HOPS

Junior Zak Farkes was not in the dugout for the game. According to Walsh, Farkes was undergoing an MRI on his leg after colliding with Penn’s first baseman during last week’s series against the Quakers. Farkes started as the designated hitter in the first three Ivy games this weekend, before sitting out the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader against Princeton. “It’s been bothering him, so he’s going to see if it’s a stress fracture,” Walsh said. “Hopefully it’s just a bruise. We’re not the same ball club without him.”…The Crimson will return to action at O’Donnell Field this weekend, when it hosts Yale in a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.

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