Lions Are Double Trouble in Weekend Sweep

Steady drizzle and temperatures hovering around 40 degrees are nothing new to O’Donnell Field in April. But a one-win season and, so far, cellar-dweller status in the Ivy League have been quite a shock to the perennially-contending Harvard baseball team.

The Crimson (1-18, 0-4 Ivy) continued its woeful season at the plate and watched suddenly hot Columbia (9-16, 5-1) thrive in wet, frigid weather yesterday. The Lions swept the doubleheader, taking the first game, 2-0, behind a complete game shutout from Joe Scarlata, and hitting their way to a 10-2 rout in the nightcap.

“We just needed something to happen, and the bats were silent,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “Whether it was 92 degrees today, it still could have been 10-2.”

“They got their knocks, and it was the same temperature on the other side of the field,” senior outfielder Tom Stack-Babich added. “I’m sure it affected us, but you can’t really blame it.”

Harvard now faces a crucial stretch of baseball that, due to weather problems over the past week, will be concentrated in a three-day period. At noon today, the Crimson will play two against visiting Penn in a doubleheader pushed back after a rainy Saturday forecast. Tomorrow, the team will travel tomorrow to Cornell, where it will make up a twinbill that was postponed due to last weekend’s snows in Ithaca. On Wednesday, it will play its first of two games in the Beanpot Tournament, a tradition that annually features Boston College, UMass, and Northeastern. Having already dropped four games in the ever-competitive Ivy League, Harvard can’t afford to lose, or even split, many more two-game sets.

“These games are crucial right now,” Walsh said. “I haven’t dropped a doubleheader, personally, in quite a long time, nevermind two. I just hope the team responds with the bats.”

COLUMBIA 10, HARVARD 2

A sloppy fourth inning led to five runs—all unearned—for Columbia, and opened the doors for a 10-2 rout in the second game of the doubleheader yesterday.

Sophomore Dan Zailskas threw 3.2 innings for the Crimson, allowing seven runs—only two earned—on nine hits. He surrendered single runs in the second and third innings, but a two-run double from Lions centerfielder Nick Cox and two errors by third baseman Matt Vance allowed five Columbia baserunners to score and break the game open.

“All of a sudden you’re chasing a bundle, and the cold sets in,” Walsh said. “That’s when it gets tough, and that’s when momentum changes.”

Seven different Lions batted in at least one run in the nightcap, with Cox and Jason Banos driving in two apiece.

Harvard’s 10 hits were a breath of fresh air after a two-hit performance in the first game, but it took 12 innings for Harvard to show its first signs of life at the plate—it pushed across single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to get on the scoreboard. Back-to-back singles from senior Jeff Stoeckel and sophomore Chris Rouches led off the fifth and set up a Griff Jenkins sacrifice fly one out later. A fielder’s choice groundout by junior Jon Roberts drove in a run after freshmen Taylor Albright and Sean O’Hara and Rouches had each singled to load the bases.

COLUMBIA 2, HARVARD 0

Stagnant Crimson bats and an outstanding outing by Lions starter Joe Scarlata combined to spoil a solid showing by Harvard starter Brad Unger in a 2-0 loss to open the doubleheader.

Unger pitched well enough to win on most afternoons, allowing just four hits and two runs over a seven-inning complete game, but took the loss on a day when the Crimson failed repeatedly to find its stroke and produce timely hitting.

Scarlata bested Unger’s complete-game effort, twirling seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits and a walk, and striking out eight.

Freshman Dillon O’Neill led off the game with a single grounded past the second baseman, but Harvard would not get another hit—or put a runner on any way—until the sixth, when freshman Sean O’Hara blooped a single to enter.

“[Scarlata] just didn’t give anyone anything to hit,” Stack-Babich said. “Anytime you get a good outing like that and the bats just do nothing, it’s disheartening to waste a quality start.”

“At this point we need to get a win under our belt and try to get on a streak,” he added. “It’s really a game of momentum, and right now we’ve just got a lot of losing momentum we’re trying to break. We need to start believing we can win.”

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