ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Vance’s Bat Keeps Crimson in First

With the baseball season nearing its end, the Crimson faced some serious tests.

Ten division games challenged itsposition atop the Rolfe Division. Yale came and went, defeated.

This past weekend, Brown, tied with Harvard for the Rolfe lead, placed before the rolling Crimson the gauntlet of a double twinbill.

One man answered.

Junior center fielder Matt Vance used his bat to prevent the Bears from getting ahead of themselves, quieting talk of Brown stealing the division-leading spot outright.

Vance continually frustrated the Bear pitchers by hitting just about everything that came his way, as he went 11-for-16 to lead Harvard to a split of both doubleheaders—allowing the Crimson to stay atop the standings, tied with their ursine foes.

Vance’s power hitting began early Saturday afternoon with a single in his second at bat, which was converted into a run thanks to an RBI by freshman designated hitter Andrew Prince. Another single in the seventh helped Harvard down Brown, 7-3, in their first meeting.

The Bears got their revenge on the Crimson in the next Saturday matchup, but could not keep the center fielder from having another monster game. This time he hit on three of his four at-bats, scoring on one.

But that’s not the remarkable part. He tallied an RBI on every single at-bat, despite hitting leadoff.

Of course, a leadoff hitter getting RBI may just mean the batters late in the lineup are good at getting on base.

“[A]ll the guys really chipped in up and down the lineup and had some good at-bats in the second game,” said Harvard head coach Joe Walsh.

But you might want to reconsider assigning the credit for those RBI to the bottom of the lineup. Hitting .688 over a four-game period and leading all players in RBI is no fluke.

“Vance seemed to be on base every time I looked up,” Walsh said.

But Vance’s big hits couldn’t stop Brown from tallying 12 runs enroute to its victory, and the first day split meant that the Crimson and the Bears faced the same matchup for control of the Rolfe Division on Sunday.

It was Vance who came out swinging again for Harvard, leading off the third inning by blasting a home run deep into left field. But despite another 3-for-4 hitting performance from Vance, the Crimson was unable to stop Brown from winning its second game in a row and temporarily taking over the division lead.

Still, nothing could slow down Matt Vance.

“Coach knew that we knew exactly what we needed to do,” said junior third baseman Steffan Wilson. “Our captain, Brendan, pulled us all aside and said, ‘You know what you need to do, we just came up short yesterday and today—we need to come up big right here.’ Vance shouldered a lot of that responsibility. He knew he had to get on. He came up with a hit and got things rolling and we never looked back.”

No, Brown could not one-up Harvard for long. Despite intentionally walking the Crimson’s power-hitting junior, the Bears could not stop Vance from hammering in a fifth-inning RBI with a two-out single to secure a solid, seven-run Harvard lead. Vance led the Crimson yet again in Sunday’s second game, hitting on three of four at-bats.

Brown’s pitchers, despite their best efforts, simply could not keep Vance’s powerful bat from wreaking havoc, and the shortstop’s big hits thwarted the Bears from taking the crucial division lead for their own.