Division Title Hopes Dwindle as Harvard Falls to 0-4 in Ivies

In the Harvard baseball team’s pair of losses at the hands of Columbia yesterday, it was not what the Crimson did that resulted in defeat, but what it didn’t do.

The Harvard offense laid dormant throughout the twinbill at O’Donnell Field, as the Crimson was able to post only two runs in 16 innings of play.

“We just needed something to happen and the bats were silent,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “We’ve had an outage offensively.”

In the first game, a 2-0 loss, the Crimson’s lack of production at the plate robbed senior pitcher Brad Unger of a win. The righty threw an impressive seven-inning complete game, allowing only two runs on five hits and three walks while striking out six, but Harvard was unable to muster any offensive output as Lions pitcher Joe Scarlata allowed only two hits in his shutout effort.

“It’s disheartening to waste a quality start like that,” senior outfielder Tom Stack-Babich said. “Their guy threw well, but it wasn’t Nolan Ryan up there.”

In Game 2, the Crimson bats flickered occasional signs of life, but rarely made appearances at the most crucial moments in the game. Harvard scattered 10 hits but managed only two runs, while the Columbia hitters ran wild on the Crimson pitching, giving the Lions a 10-2 win.

CAPTURING THE MOMENT

Junior catcher Jared Wortzman’s role on the baseball team rarely extends further than catching bullpen sessions for Harvard’s pitchers and cheering on his teammates from the bench come game time.

Wortzman walked on to the squad last season and saw a single at-bat in which he made an out, but while his plate appearances have been rare once again this season, Wortzman has proved to be opportunistic when given a chance to play.

He picked up his first career hit earlier in the season, and when his name was called yesterday in the ninth inning of the second game, he came through again, knocking a seeing-eye single past the Columbia shortstop in his only at-bat to improve to 2-for-3 on the season.

“He’s one of the reasons you enjoy coaching,” Walsh said. “He’s a walk-on guy who gives you everything he has...He’s got a nice short stroke. He does his job on the team.

“He’s out there every bullpen [session] warming up in between innings,” Walsh added. “He’s a valuable guy. It’s one of the nice things about this game.”

DO OR DIE

In the hole with an 0-4 record in Ivy League play in what is only a 20-game conference schedule, what the Crimson does in the next two days could very well decide whether Harvard has a chance to make a run at the Rolfe Division Championship and an appearance in the Ivy League Championship Series, or if the Crimson will be resigned to playing spoiler for the remainder of the quickly unfolding season.

Harvard takes on Penn today in a doubleheader after this weekend’s games were pushed forward a day due to weather concerns.

Tomorrow, the Crimson travels to Ithaca, N.Y. for a two-game set with Cornell in a make-up of a twinbill originally scheduled for March 29 that was snowed out.

With a sweep or at least three wins in these extremely important four games, Harvard will be right back in the Rolfe chase, but anything less may very well put the Crimson out of contention for good.

Harvard’s hopes of a sweep may be dampened by uncertainty regarding which players will actually be able to make the trip to Cornell due to non-baseball factors.

Several of the Crimson players have midterms scheduled tomorrow, which may result in Harvard being unable to put out its top lineup against the Big Red.

“I’m not sure how many guys I’m going to have on that bus,” Walsh said. “There may be a few guys making their debuts with our pitching beat up a little bit as it is.”

The Crimson will attempt to get off on the right foot by sending its ace, senior Shawn Haviland, out to the mound today, but for Harvard to truly succeed, its offense will have to do its part as well.

“I just hope the team responds with the bats,” Walsh said. “We can’t expect [Haviland] to shut everybody out.”

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