Third Time Is Charm at N.Y. Tech

Six games into the young 2006 season, the Harvard baseball team has its first win.

Defeats at Florida and the New York Institute of Technology (5-4), where the Crimson (1-5) visited this weekend, had the team searching for relief. Showing itself both wild and hittable, the pitching staff did not receive any—until yesterday afternoon.

Together, sophomore Brad Unger and senior Matt Brunnig pitched a three-hit shutout. In his four innings, Brunnig was perfect.

“Brunnig was pretty awesome,” said sophomore hurler Shawn Haviland, who struggled on the mound in the series opener. “He threw a ton of strikes, and was huge for us since our middle and late relief has been a weakness for us lately.”

“I think we settled down and put together our first real complete game of the season,” captain Morgan Brown said. “We got timely hitting, good defense, and really good pitching performances.”

HARVARD 3, NYIT 2

After dropping both games of a doubleheader Saturday, the Harvard baseball team recorded its first win of the season, scoring a 3-2 victory over the New York Institute of Technology. Unger and Brunnig combined to allow only three hits and no earned runs for the Crimson.

Although both of Saturday’s games were tightly contested, Harvard came out on the losing end of each one, and could have entered yesterday’s game demoralized. Instead, the Crimson showcased its impressive pitching and solid hitting to garner its first win of the young season.

“We just came into the last game knowing that we weren’t going to leave empty handed,” senior Lance Salsgiver said.

Harvard took the lead in the fourth, scoring two runs on a Taylor Meehan double to take a 3-1 lead. Although Bears starting pitcher Chris Perez (1-1) avoided any further damage by forcing sophomore Matt Vance to pop up and strand two runners, the damage had been done.

“We don’t have that many lefties,” said sophomore Shawn Haviland, “so if [Taylor] can come off the bench and hit off a powerful rightie like he did today, that’s great.”

The Bears would not put together another serious threat for the rest of the game, as Brunnig came in after the fifth and threw four nearly perfect innings, allowing no hits and recording his first save of the season. Unger compiled an equally impressive box score, allowing only three singles and no earned runs in five innings to grab his first win of the season.

NYIT 3, HARVARD 2

Although right-hander Adam Cole put together his second impressive outing of the season, allowing six hits and two runs in 6.2 innings, the Crimson dropped its second game of the doubleheader 3-2. After allowing only one run off of a groundout in the second, Cole left after allowing the tying run to score in the seventh inning. The only blight on the freshman’s record was an uncharacteristic six walks, which he worked around by striking out four.

“Cole pitched great for us this weekend,” Salsgiver said. “He’s 2-for-2 in quality starts. Both times he’s left with the lead and hasn’t come out with the win.”

After falling behind 1-0 in the second, senior Josh Klimkiewicz provided the equalizer with a groundout that scored Salsgiver, who had reached base with a walk. In the fourth, Vance sent a single to center field that allowed Matt Rogers to score. Harvard would hold onto the 2-1 lead until the tying run crossed the plate in the seventh.

With the score tied coming into the ninth, Harvard failed to mount an attack in the top half of the inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Javier Castellanos, who pitched 1.2 innings of solid relief, delivered a one-out walk to Kraig Binick, who promptly stole second. A single from shortstop MacMillan plated the winning run to give the Bears their second victory.

NYIT 9, HARVARD 6

In the first game of the series, a back-and-forth affair played in cold, miserable weather, NYIT grabbed a 9-6 victory. The Bears seized a commanding lead with a five-run third, aided by two Crimson errors, which gave them a 6-1 lead. The big hit of the inning was a two-run triple by third baseman Mike LaLuna off Haviland, who pitched 2.1 innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on seven hits.

“I was throwing a lot of strikes at the beginning, and then I walked a guy or two,” Haviland said. “From there, the wheels kind of came off, and the next thing we knew we had given up five runs.”

Harvard refused to give up, however, and staged a four-run comeback in the fourth to bring the team within one run. A series of hits, punctuated by RBIs from Vance, junior Brendan Byrne, Rogers, and pinch hitter Brunning brought Harvard back into the game, and a squeeze from junior Justin Roth tied it.

NYIT broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth after Binick reached third on a bunt single, stolen base, and groundout off of Crimson reliever Jason Brown, who pitched 2.2 innings of relief, allowing two hits and two runs and receiving credit for the loss.

“They’re a competitive team,” Brown said. “They play an aggressive style with lots of stealing and bunting. They played their game [Saturday] and beat us straight up.”

—Staff writer Julie R. S. Fogarty can be reached at fogarty2@fas.harvard.edu.