MALE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Steffan Wilson '08, Baseball

There are certain snapshots that define Steffan Wilson’s season.

There was his first-ever pitching appearance at O’Donnell Field, when he dominated eventual Lou Gehrig Division champion Cornell in the eighth and ninth innings, striking out the heart of the Big Red order for the save.

There was his backhanded pickup and laser throw from foul territory behind third base to close out a key inning in the Ivy Championship Series.

And then, of course, there was the unsettling moment that reminded us all that Harvard’s third baseman and closer was somehow still just a freshman.

As the rest of the Crimson traveled to hostile Hanover, N.H. to clinch Harvard’s first Red Rolfe Division title since 2003, Wilson was locked up in a place so many of us have attempted to escape: Expository Writing.

Bound by an unfortunate blend of class scheduling and Harvard rules, the rookie sat nervously through Expos as his teammates fended off rival Dartmouth.

“You forget a lot of the time that he’s a freshman,” junior pitcher Frank Herrmann said. “Some guys take it slow, and ease into it. But he and a bunch of other guys this year, too, have assimilated well. I don’t know where we’d be without them.”

Wilson ultimately managed to make his way into the visitors’ dugout 30 minutes after the game began, immediately taking over at the hot corner. And it would be Wilson, fittingly, who would stand atop the hill to record the last out of the decisive, division-clinching win.

“He’s been real important to us all year,” said Herrmann after the freshman’s impressive performance.

The rest of the Ancient Eight surely noticed as well.

Coaches voted Wilson the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, also naming him the unanimous first team All-Ivy selection at third base and to the second team at reliever.

At Cambridge, his name is now safely entrenched at the top of virtually every statistical category—hitting and otherwise.

The State College, Penn., native paced the Ivy champion Crimson in triples (5), tied for first in hits (53) and walks (21), ranked second in batting average (.344), on-base percentage (.424), total bases (84), and runs scored (37), and was third in RBI (33) and slugging (.545).

For good measure, he also stole 10 bases in 11 attempts.

“He knew he was good, and he played like it, and his play backed him up,” senior Rob Wheeler said after Wilson’s first few collegiate games. “And I think that’s one of the things that a lot of kids on the team respected about him and wished that they could have had coming into college.”

But just as impressive as his bat, arguably, was the right arm that held it.

The freshman served flawlessly as the team’s official closer, recording six saves—the most in Harvard history—over 12 appearances, limiting opponents to a feeble .180 batting average.

Oftentimes, a late-inning meeting at the mound meant that Wilson was going to make the short walk from third to the pitcher’s mound, and that the game was essentially over. He featured a hard fastball, a changeup, and a knee-buckling curveball that few Ivy Leaguers were able to touch.

“He’s got some bulldog in him,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said after he shut down Cornell at home. “There are certain things about a closer, and he doesn’t fear hitters. He just goes after people. He’s going to come in there and throw strikes.

“He drops that curveball over when he’s behind in the count, and if you can do that you’re a quality pitcher. I was watching that Texas-Nebraska game for 14 innings, and they didn’t have a guy who could throw a breaking ball when they were behind in the count. We do.”

Stolen out of the clutches of Wake Forest as a recruit, Wilson decided to don crimson in lieu of basking in the Deacons’ southern climes after a late visit to Cambridge and last-minute call from Walsh.

“The other teams I had visited weren’t nearly as accepting, didn’t have the same kind of team—I guess chemistry that I felt was here,” Wilson said earlier this year. “Not to mention it’s the best school in the world. Both of those things together really changed my mind.”

Expository Writing, apparently, be damned.

—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.