PREVIEW: Harvard Gears Up for League Championship

It all comes down to this.

After compiling a 21-18-1 record and grabbing the Rolfe Division title, the Harvard baseball team faces a must-win situation this weekend in the Ivy League Championship Series. The Crimson, which boasts a 14-6 Ivy record, will take on Princeton (16-23-1, 11-9 Ivy), winners of the Gehrig Division, this weekend in a best-of-three set at O’Donnell Field.

Harvard’s impressive pitching staff will hope to continue its Ivy League dominance behind the powerful 1-2 punch of sophomore Shawn Haviland and freshman Adam Cole.

Haviland has demonstrated that he is one of the best pitchers in the league, if not the best. His Ancient Eight stats tell the story: In 37 innings pitched, he has allowed 28 hits, six runs—only three of them earned—and six walks, while striking out 29 batters. That amounts to a league ERA of only 0.73, and his overall ERA of 3.48 ranks fourth in the Ivies, but much of that was compiled against powerful non-conference sqauds like Florida and Boston College. Last weekend, Haviland helped the Crimson pull out a key win against Dartmouth by throwing ten innings of one-run ball. Against Princeton earlier this year, Haviland shut down the Tigers, allowing only one run over seven innings.

“Haviland has been unbelievable this year,” senior captain Morgan Brown said. “He’s been amazingly consistent. As a team, we need to give him more run support and play some defense behind him.”

Cole has thus far demonstrated maturity far beyond his years, and has become a dominant number two starter for Harvard. He ranks ninth in the league with a 4.03 ERA, and allowed only two runs over 7 2/3 innings in an 8-2 victory over Princeton last month. As a team, the Crimson ranks fourth in the league with a 5.58 ERA.

Yet, by the numbers, the Harvard pitching staff should have no problem with the toothless Tigers offense. As a team, Princeton is batting only .273 and has only one individual hitter ranked in the top 15 in the Ivy League—Aaron Prince, with a .345 mark. In its two losses to the Crimson earlier this year, the Tigers managed only three runs on 15 hits.

Princeton’s strength lies in its pitching and defense, both of which are ranked first in the Ivy League. The Tigers boast a team ERA of 4.28, and sophomore righty Christian Staehely has an impressive 2.44 ERA to go along with his 4-1 record. Senior ace Erik Stiller, who ranks fifth in the league with a 3.54 ERA, has totaled a league-high 54 strikeouts in 56 innings pitched. Behind him stands an airtight defense that has committed only 66 errors in 409 chances for a statistically-best .955 percentage.

“Eric Stiller is a very smart, talented pitcher,” Brown said. “We want to emphasize our pitch selection, and make him throw strikes down the middle. We need to lay off his curveball and make him throw us some fastballs. It should be a good duel between him and Haviland.”

If Princeton is to have any chance of stopping the red-hot Crimson, its pitching and defense must remain perfect, as the Harvard bats don’t show any signs of quieting down. In the decisive game against Dartmouth last weekend, Harvard unleashed 23 runs—including 14 unanswered to close the game—to take the series from the Big Green. The Crimson was led by senior Josh Klimkiewicz, who returned from injury to compile five runs, four RBI, and four hits—including a monster home run—in the finale. Lance Salsgiver, the senior right fielder, leads the squad with a .358 average and has excelled in getting into scoring position in front of the heart of the order.

“We want to score on them in the first inning,” Salsgiver said. “If we can score some runs in the first inning and get to their bullpen, it will help us since they don’t have as many solid relief guys. We need guys like me and Matt Vance to get on and get into stealing position so the guys in the middle of the lineup like Josh [Klimkiewicz] and Steffan Wilson can knock us in.”

Last season, Harvard dropped Gehrig Division winner Cornell in two games behind strong starting pitching to claim the Ivy title. If the 2006 Crimson team has anything to say about it, this year’s result will be the same: an Ivy title and an entry into the NCAA Tournament.

“As a senior, we never know when it’s going to be our last game, so we have to treat each game as if it is,” Brown said. “We want to leave it all on the field. We’re all fired up and no one wants to stop playing baseball right now. We love it and we’re excited to go out there and defend our Ivy League title.”

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