Rams Breeze by Baseball in R.I.

With two players in scoring position before an out had even been recorded in the game, the Harvard baseball team appeared to be handling the University of Rhode Island (21-15) without a problem. At the end of the first inning, with the score tied at one, the Crimson (21-13) still looked like it had the game under control.

Then it all went downhill.

Harvard was outscored by 15 runs—its worse defeat since last March, when the team lost to Texas Tech 30-8—in falling to the Rams at Bill Beck Field in Kingston, R.I.

“It was just one of those days,” freshman Steffan Wilson said. “Their team average was over .300 and we put some guys on the mound who just didn’t have a lot of experience.”

Several Crimson starters stayed back at Harvard to rest up for this weekend’s Ivy League face-off with Dartmouth while their teammates struggled.

“Things just kind of snowballed and got out of hand,” freshman Matt Vance said.

Harvard went through five pitchers as URI pounded 15 hits to score 16 runs, all of them earned. Freshman Max Warren made the first start of his collegiate career and his third appearance of the season, pitching the first two innings. He was able to hold the Rams to one run in the first inning, but couldn’t stop Rhode Island’s explosive offense in the second.

“Our pitchers definitely competed out there,” sophomore Brendan Byrne said, “but some days you have it and some days you don’t.”

Taking advantage of two walks and a Crimson error in the second, the Rams scored three runs, the biggest blow coming from Scott Brown, who hit a three-run homer to kick off a 3-5, 5 RBI afternoon.

Stopping short of calling the three-run blast “the nail in the coffin,” Vance called the home run “the back breaker.” When he came back onto the field to see that the Crimson was down 6-1, he couldn’t help but be a little pessimistic.

“Aw crap,” he remembered thinking, “this isn’t going to be good.”

Vance recorded two of Harvard’s five hits, the first one coming in the first inning when he doubled to left field.

He moved to third base on a balk and was driven home by Zak Farkes with an RBI groundout. Vance went 2-for-4, recording his seventh and eighth doubles of the season.

Farkes finished 1-for-3 and recorded Harvard’s sole RBI.

Rhode Island had no problem figuring out how to hit not one, not two, but five Crimson pitchers. Rams senior Matt Sullivan went 4-for-5, with one homer, two RBIs and three runs scored. Joe Viscuso went 2-for-4, driving in one run and scoring three times. Mike Rainville homered to record his third round-tripper of the season.

Equally impressive was the Rams pitching. Adam Perkins allowed only four hits and one run over six solid innings, improving his record to 7-1. After allowing one run in the first, Perkins was able to hold Harvard hitless until the sixth frame.

The only Crimson batter to reach base over the four-inning span was John Wolff, who reached on an error by the second baseman in the fifth inning.

“They had a lefty who was going around the plate,” Byrne said, “and when he threw strikes we just weren’t hitting them.”

Down 9-1 in the sixth inning, Harvard’s offense seemed to revive. First Vance led off the inning with a double. Brendan Byrne then grounded out, followed by Farkes, who singled, putting runners at the corners with only one down. The Crimson seemed poised at least to put a dent in Rhode Island’s lead.

All hopes of a Harvard rally were squashed with the next at-bat, however, when captain Schuyler Mann grounded into an around the horn double play.

“We knew that it was a good team, but it was important for us to get some guys into the game who hadn’t been playing much this season,” Wilson said.

The team also learned a few lessons that might help it during its crucial Ivy League season-ending series against Dartmouth this weekend.

“If we come out flat,” Byrne said, “we’ll find ourselves in a hole. We need to come out with intensity if we want to win.”