Last Hand for Harvard's Ace

Growing up in Farmington, Conn., Harvard starting pitcher Shawn Haviland watched his favorite team, the New York Yankees, collect a handful of championships in the late ‘90s. Like any young fan, he idolized Derek Jeter, New York’s popular shortstop.

So imagine Haviland’s attempt to play it cool when the Yankee captain approached him in the weight room of their training facility in Tampa, Fla., and introduced himself.

“I just started laughing hysterically,” the senior righthander remembers. “I said, ‘I obviously know who you are.’ But he was the nicest guy.”

Getting into better shape was the primary offseason goal for Haviland. As the certified ace of the Crimson’s rotation, he was entrusted as a junior with pitching the second, nine-inning game of a doubleheader as opposed to the first, seven-inning game. Early on last season, Haviland would find himself tiring after his usual seven innings—and would sometimes find himself in trouble or in the dugout for the eighth and ninth.

The senior recalls a game at Brown last April: the Crimson and the Bears were tied at four after seven innings, but the bullpen gave up eight runs in the eighth after coach Joe Walsh pulled a tired Haviland. Harvard dropped the 12-4 decision and found itself on the outside looking in come May, when Brown celebrated the Ivy League title.

“We’re a young staff this year, and we don’t have a lot of guys that can throw that many innings outside of [sophomore lefthander Eric Eadington] and myself,” Haviland says of the rotation he’ll top this spring. “Looking back to that Brown series made me think about getting my fitness level higher and being able to throw more pitches.”

Remembering that teammate Jeff Stoeckel had done some offseason training at Jeter’s facility in Tampa between his sophomore and junior seasons, Haviland decided to give it a shot. Working out with Jeter and Ryan Howard—“probably the biggest guy on the planet,” Haviland wagers—committed the righty to an offseason experience unlike any he’d had before.

“They absolutely got after it,” he says. “I could barely keep up with them.”

After training with the pros, the senior will begin the 2008 campaign weighing in at around 10 pounds lighter than he did at the end of last season. What’s more, he’s back at full strength after suffering a stress fracture in his rib cage early on in 2007. A cortisone shot in late July allowed Haviland to finish his summer in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League, and September rest healed the injury fully.

News of a full-strength Haviland is sure to disappoint Ancient Eight hitters as they get in this spring’s first swings—the 2006 Ivy League Pitcher of the year has firmly established his place as one of the conference’s elite starters. And on a team with a fair number of question marks, Haviland at the top of the rotation is one sure thing.

“The kid wants it,” Walsh says of his senior starter. “I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted anybody more on the mound than Haviland in a big game. He’s gutsy—he’s got the ice water in his veins.”

2007 was an up-and-down campaign for Haviland, who recognizes the impact of his rib injury but still feels he should have been able to throw at full strength. While he recorded his highest ERA in his three seasons at Harvard, Ivy League batters still hit just .226 against him. Late-season gems like his one-hit shutout of Yale and his two-run, four-hit performance against Dartmouth have cemented Haviland’s status as one of Harvard’s finest starters in recent memory. The latter showing came on just three days rest, a performance that kept the Crimson in the race for the Rolfe Division title in late April.

“He knows what he’s doing,” says Eadington, who is a lock for the second spot in Walsh’s rotation. “He shows a lot of leadership with all the freshman pitchers. It’s been great working with him and learning from his experience.”

While he’s trained with pros, the senior now turns his sights toward becoming one. Not known as a velocity pitcher, his fastball reached 90 miles per hour—an important benchmark for collegiate starters—on Scout Day last October. Haviland admits that he may have allowed thoughts of scouts and the Major League Baseball draft to become a distraction last year, but all signs point to him keeping his focus on the mound in 2008.

“I don’t think he’s going to let scouts watching him or this being his last year get to him,” junior infielder Harry Douglas says. “He’s already proved what he needs to prove.”

“This year I’m just trying to enjoy it—you only get to play college baseball for four years,” Haviland says. “There’s really nothing better.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.