Crimson Struggles Continue in Loss to Crusaders

When a baseball team’s best hitter cranks two home runs in the first three innings, it usually adds up to a win.

But for the slumping Harvard baseball team, nothing has guaranteed a victory of late. The Crimson (1-17) failed to muster much offense beyond captain Matt Vance’s two homers, and Holy Cross (9-14) used an eighth-inning triple to steal a 4-3 win yesterday at Fitton Field in Worcester, Mass. The Crimson hasn’t posted a victory since a 4-1 decision over Lafeyette on March 16.

Locked in a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning, coach Joe Walsh turned to ace and usual starter Shawn Haviland in an attempt to keep the game close. With one out, Haviland worked around the Crusaders’ top hitter, Brendan Akashian (1-for-3, RBI) and put him on with a walk.

One out later and a stolen base later, first baseman Eric Oxford delivered a triple that was helped by some forceful winds, and Akashian came around with the run that put Holy Cross on top for good.

“[Akashian] is their best guy, I’ve played against him in the summer,” Haviland said. “The wind was blowing out, and I wanted to make sure he didn’t beat us with one swing. I was pretty careful with him, and maybe I shouldn’t have been.”

“We have no problem bringing [Haviland] and we have a lot of confidence in him,” Vance said. “He left a pitch up that a hitter just jumped on, so it’s unfortunate.”

Freshman Ben Sestanovich got the midweek start for Walsh and the Crimson after recording several impressive outings during Harvard’s challenging nonconference schedule last month. The Crusaders jumped all over the rookie in the bottom of the first when the first three hitters reached base, but Sestanovich stopped the bleeding and escaped to keep the score tied at two after an inning.

The first inning seemed to indicate a big day from the Harvard lineup against Holy Cross starter Tim Thran, as senior Taylor Meehan drew a one-out walk before Vance unloaded to right on the first of two round-trippers. Senior Tom Stack-Babich followed quickly with a single through the infield, but sophomore Dan Zailskas grounded into a double play to end the threat for more.

Vance would go deep again with a solo shot in the third inning, but both offenses sputtered against middle relief and the score would remain tied at three until the Crusaders eighth-inning rally against Haviland.

Sloppy play in the field plagued both teams, with each recording two errors and gusts making a few routine plays more interesting events. But only one miscue would come back to haunt Harvard: after Holy Cross second baseman Jake Gorman doubled and took third on a wild pitch, an error by the Crimson’s Jeff Stoeckel—usually a sure thing at shortstop—allowed Akashian to reach and the tying run to come home.

Sestanovich, like Thran, would settle down after the first to record a respectable outing for the Crimson. But at the first signs of shaky control in the fourth—the freshman allowed a leadoff single, then recorded an errant pickoff attempt, a wild pitch, and a walk—Walsh promptly lifted him for senior Max Warren. Warren allowed just one baserunner in three scoreless frames of relief before giving way to Haviland.

The Crusaders’ late-game heroics only magnified the Crimson’s recent struggles at the plate. Harvard matched Holy Cross with five hits, but couldn’t push a run home after the third frame and couldn’t produce baserunners in tight spots. The Crimson put two men on with nobody out in the sixth, but Crusader reliever Ryan George induced three quick outs to end the rally and any hope of a comeback—Harvard failed to reach base for the rest of the game.

“Normally we’re not going to hit any home runs, so we need to be good in those situations,” Haviland said. “We haven’t been so far. It’s what’s been going on all season for us.”

“Offensively we’ve been really streaky all year, and that continued today,” Vance added. “We’re taking pitches when we shouldn’t and we’re swinging when we shouldn’t, so we wind up in a hole a lot of the time. It’s tough to produce runs that way.”

The Crimson opens its home season at O’Donnell Field this weekend when it hosts Columbia and Penn for two key Ivy League doubleheaders. First pitch is scheduled for noon Saturday against the Lions and Sunday against the Quakers.

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