Harvard Suffers Heartbreaker At Fenway

BOSTON—As the Harvard baseball team discovered yesterday, Fenway Park looks a little less nice when you’re watching your opponent celebrate at home plate.

For the second straight game, Crimson relief squandered a comfortable early lead and walked off the mound in defeat. After taking third base on a passed ball, Northeastern’s Tony DiCesare scored on Mike Lyon’s infield single to give the Huskies a 7-6, 10-inning victory in the consolation game of the Beanpot Tournament at Fenway Park yesterday.

Harvard shortstop Jeff Stoeckel fielded Lyon’s single in shallow left field and double-pumped his throw when he saw the Northeastern third base coach try to stop DiCesare from going home. But the Huskies’ rightfielder ran right through his coach’s sign, beating Stoeckel’s eventual throw to the plate and starting Northeastern’s celebration at the Fens.

“I thought Stoeckel had a chance—he’s the one guy who’s going to know that play,” coach Joe Walsh said of his sure-handed shortstop. “I thought he’d come up, throw a strike home, and we’d still be playing. But it’s about making plays, and we didn’t make enough of them.”

For the second time in the game, Walsh made the decision to intentionally walk Huskies leadoff man Mike Tamsin to face Lyon, who leads his team with a .405 batting average and 29 RBIs this season. Walsh figured that passing the left-handed Tamsin gave his right-handed starters the advantage against the righty Lyon, and his strategy worked to perfection the first time around—Lyon hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to end the eighth inning. The bottom of the tenth, though, saw the Northeastern captain put just enough bat on the ball to win it.

“Tamsin was the best hitter in New England this year, and, well, Lyon might just be the second-best,” Walsh said.

Harvard looked to be in the driver’s seat early, taking advantage of timely hits and Northeastern miscues to jump out to a quick lead. An RBI single up the middle from captain Matt Vance got the Crimson on the board in the first, and after Harvard loaded the bases in the next frame, back-to-back Husky errors on potential double-play balls allowed three runners to come home.

But Northeastern chipped away at its deficit, pulling within one in the fourth on a two-run double by DiCesare that concluded a superb nine-pitch at-bat and chased Crimson starter Ben Sestanovich. Max Warren, who was Harvard’s most reliable pitcher in the early portion of the Ivy schedule but has struggled of late, got out of the fourth-inning jam but allowed the Huskies to take a 6-5 lead on a passed ball and sac fly in the next frame.

The Crimson came back to tie things up in the top half of the eighth. Vance singled home freshman Dillon O’Neill, who had walked and taken second on a sacrifice by junior Matt Rogers. The captain went 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs to pace the Crimson at the plate.

“Our offense is really starting to pick it up, especially early,” Vance said. “Now we just need to work on continuing to hit and not relaxing and relying on that early lead—try to extend it once we get out there so we can put them away, and not let them come back like we did today.”

Walsh gave the midweek start to the freshman Sestanovich, but used a full arsenal of veteran hurlers to get through the middle and late innings. Seniors Shawn Haviland and Brad Unger, the first and second men in Walsh’s rotation, each pitched an inning of middle relief. One of the afternoon’s bright spots was senior Taylor Meehan, who made his first appearance after midseason surgery and pitched a scoreless ninth and tenth.

“Everyone’s been pitching well with our staff facing a lot of injuries,” Walsh said. “Credit those seniors for coming back and wanting the ball.”

Eight of the nine seniors on Harvard’s roster saw time in their last chance to play at Fenway. Tom Stack-Babich has been out for over a week with an injury, but will have another chance to play in the Beanpot in his additional year of Crimson eligibility.

“I wish we could have walked away with a win,” Vance said, “but to play here for the last time—I’ll always remember it.”

Harvard returns to Ivy League play this weekend, when it hosts defending Ancient Eight champion Brown for a pair of doubleheaders at O’Donnell Field. First pitch for each twinbill is scheduled for noon.

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