NOTEBOOK: Crimson’s nine pitchers not enough to counter BC’s complete-game performance

In the Harvard baseball team’s 5-2 loss yesterday in the Beanpot opener against Boston College, Crimson coach Joe Walsh sent nine different pitchers to the mound in eight innings of work. After Harvard used only three hurlers in last Saturday’s doubleheader with Yale, Walsh saw the need to get the rest of his staff tuned up before this weekend’s crucial series against Brown.

“It was good for a lot of guys to get in work and everybody’s ready for the weekend,” Walsh said. “That’s what we were kind of thinking with that staff going out.”

Walsh also hoped that giving the Eagles’ lineup a variety of looks would keep the BC hitters off-balance.

“If I’m a hitter and I’m seeing a different guy every time that can be a little bit of an adjustment, especially if they’re throwing first pitch strikes.” Walsh said, “Even though it was pre-planned, I was thinking it was going work.”

It almost did work. The combined efforts of the Harvard pitchers kept the Eagles scoreless in all but two innings.

Junior Brad Unger started the game off for the Crimson with a 1-2-3 inning, and freshman Eric Eadington, sophomore Adam Cole, juniors Shawn Haviland and Steffan Wilson, and senior Jake Bruton also all threw scoreless innings.

Walsh was especially impressed with Cole’s inning of work. The righty threw 11 of his 17 pitches for strikes, fanning one Eagles’ batter.

“I thought Cole was throwing pretty damn well today,” Walsh said. “Of all the pitchers, he looked the sharpest.”

But BC’s three-run second inning off of sophomore Ryan Watson gave the Eagles all the offense they would need. BC padded its lead in the eighth with two runs off of freshman Dan Zailskas.

ONE AND DONE

While Harvard needed nine pitchers to get through the game, one was plenty for the Eagles.

BC starter Ted Ratliff spread eight hits over a complete game performance, striking out nine while allowing only one walk.

Ratliff has become an all-too familiar sight for the Crimson.

When Harvard faced the Eagles last Wednesday, Ratliff entered the game in the fifth inning with his team up 4-3 and the Crimson gaining offensive momentum. He proceeded to strike out ten batters over five innings of shutout work.

The senior has now defeated Harvard four times over the last two seasons.

“He’s got our number,” Walsh said. “Everytime we run into BC he’s on the mound and he’s pretty darn good.”

Despite putting nine runners on base, the Crimson could not find an answer for Ratliff when it counted.

“We had a lot of hits,” Harvard captain Brendan Byrne said. “We didn’t string any together. It was frustrating.”

BEARING DOWN

The Crimson will try to bounce back from its Beanpot loss as the team gears up to play four games against the Bears this weekend in Providence, R.I. The matchup could very well decide the fate of the Rolfe Division.

Both teams enter their first game Saturday with a 7-3 Ivy League record, tied for the divison-lead.

With few conference games remaining, the outcome of this series will weigh heavily on the Ivy League playoff race.

“Quite frankly this is our season right here,” Byrne said. “The magnitude of this weekend is enormous.”

Brown has the edge over Harvard offensively, leading the Ivies with a .298 team batting average as of April 17.

“They might be a little deeper with the sticks than us,” Walsh said.

Harvard will look to counteract the Bears’ bats with it’s hard-throwing arms and slick-fielding defense. The Crimson staff’s 3.99 combined ERA entering yesterday’s game leasd the conference.

“I’m not scared of anyone with our team,” Byrne said. “I’m confident with the team we have right here and the way we’ve been playing lately.”

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.