Heads Up

The baseball gods operate in mysterious ways. And, according to Harvard coach Joe Walsh, they were not resting on Saturday.

“I think the baseball gods were here,” he affirmed.

The Crimson (17-13-1, 11-3 Ivy) was on the happy end of virtually all of the close calls and tricky bounces in posting a sweep of Saturday’s doubleheader with division rival Brown (10-19, 8-6) at O’Donnell Field.

The two wins over the Bears, who entered the afternoon just a game back in the Ivy League’s Red Rolfe Division, coupled with a split between fellow contenders Dartmouth and Yale, gave the Crimson some breathing room in the standings as it entered the final week of the regular-season schedule. The back end of the weekend series, a second doubleheader against Brown, was rescheduled for this afternoon at 1 p.m. due to rain.

HARVARD 8, BROWN 4

Harvard capitalized on three Brown errors in a four-run eighth inning to take Saturday’s nightcap, a sloppy back-and-forth affair, by an 8-4 score.

After senior Chris Mackey singled to start off the frame, Brown shortstop Dan Shapiro muffed a sure double-play ball off the bat of Lance Salsgiver before a dropped fly ball in center field loaded the bases with nobody out.

After a strikeout of reliever Matt Brunnig, who started the game at designated hitter and picked up the win to move to 4-0 on the year, sophomore Taylor Meehan lashed a single past the drawn-in third baseman, plating two.

A bunt single by Harvard second baseman Jeff Stoeckel, followed by another error, brought two more runners home.

“I don’t think [Brown] was ready to see the kind of game we played,” Stoeckel said. “We made most of the plays; they got a little rattled....So we just came out and played better, harder baseball than they did.”

Forced into the lineup because of mounting injuries on the Crimson infield, Stoeckel went 2-for-3, laid down a crucial sacrifice bunt, and contributed fine defense in only his second career start.

“When I got the chance to start,” Stoeckel said, “Coach told me to have productive at-bats, make stuff happen. And that first at-bat I went up there, battled for a little bit, got a base hit, and that just got me going.”

The Bears had taken a 4-3 lead in the seventh with a pair of unearned runs charged to starter Adam Cole, who lasted 6 2/3 innings, surrendering six hits and fanning six. The damage from four hits and two errors could have been worse, but one runner was gunned down at the plate and Brunnig whiffed cleanup hitter Jeff Dietz, suffering through a brutal 0-for-7 day at the plate, with two on to retire the side.

Matt Vance staked the Crimson to a 2-1 lead in the third inning with a two-run double.

HARVARD 1, BROWN 0

The most striking evidence of supernatural intervention came on the final play of the Crimson’s narrow victory in the crisp opener. With Harvard clinging to the slimmest of leads and runners on the corners with two outs, speedy Brown center fielder Steve Daniels chopped a high ground ball up the middle.

The ball ricocheted off the glove of pitcher Shawn Haviland and fortuitously bounced over to Stoeckel, a late-game defensive replacement at second base.

Stoeckel corralled the grounder and sent a low throw over to Steffan Wilson, who was able to scoop the ball and hold the bag long enough to earn the game-ending out call.

“That ball got deflected, it looked like it was going up the middle and get over,” Walsh said. “[But Haviland] had earned it to be out there.”

The sequence preserved the shutout win for Haviland, a victim of poor run support in losing his two previous times out. He was especially sharp on Saturday, scattering five hits over seven innings, striking out five and walking only one.

“It helps that Coach Walsh has a lot of confidence in me,” Haviland said. “He’s going to give me a shot to work out of all of my jams. I knew [Brown was] going to put the ball in play...I think they’re probably the best-hitting lineup we’ve faced.”

Haviland received the one run he would need in the bottom of the first, courtesy of some small ball from its big boppers. Wilson lined a two-out single to left, moved to second on a well-executed delayed steal, and came around to score on senior Josh Klimkiewicz’s base hit to center.

The sour note of the Crimson’s afternoon concerned Klimkiewicz. He injured himself in the fifth inning when the baserunner collided with his left arm as he tried to snare a wide throw. He was forced to leave the field and sat out the second game.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.