Harvard Can’t Recover From Historic Early Lows

The Harvard baseball team can pinpoint exactly where the 2008 campaign went awry. From March 30 to April 8, the Crimson went 1-7 in Ivy League play and essentially eliminated itself from title contention.

“That was the low point of the season,” senior ace Shawn Haviland said. “That put us out of it pretty early.”

The slump came right at the start of the Ancient Eight schedule, so by the time Harvard found its stride late in the year, there was no time left for a comeback. The Crimson finished the season in the cellar of the Red Rolfe Division.

“We came into the Ivy League very confident, but we just weren’t quite ready,” captain Matt Vance said. “Those [early] losses can really hurt you in the end, and they obviously did for us.”

Before the Ivy League season began, Harvard collected just one victory while playing one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation. The competition pounded the pitching staff and was a major reason why the Crimson’s team ERA spiked to 6.20 in 2008 after the squad led the Ivies with a 4.37 mark last season.

Offensively, Harvard never felt comfortable in the preseason and had particular trouble during its spring break trip to California, in which it scored just 1.8 runs per game.

“In the preseason, we started off playing some of the best pitching in the country,” Vance said. “We never really got a chance to get our offense going and never gained that experience to be ready for the Ivy League. We weren’t ready to explode.”

When the Crimson returned to the East Coast, it went right into the Ancient Eight schedule and dropped two one-run games to Princeton. Despite the early hole, Harvard remained optimistic that it could rebound and dominate the rest of the Lou Gehrig Division.

“There’s no finger pointing on the ball club,” head coach Joe Walsh said after the series with the Tigers. “I think we feel that we can put it together.”

Although spirits were high, the Crimson lost six contests in a row to start Ivy play. Against Penn and Columbia, Harvard recorded just two runs in four games, but then salvaged a series split at Cornell after hanging on to a 2-1 win. In the first eight games of the regular season the Crimson hit .211.

According to Vance, the non-conference schedule played a major role in the offensive struggles. The speed and strength of the opposing pitchers wore down the Harvard hitters and distorted their timing.

“[The spring break] trip helped some guys, but it didn’t help the majority of the team,” Vance said. “We needed a more balanced schedule with more teams that were on our level, not above our level.”

It took until the first Rolfe Division series at Yale for the Crimson bats to catch fire. In the second and third games of the set, the team put together 21 runs combined—one more run than the club had scored in its previous 11 contests.

The explosion against the Bulldogs led to a series split and the start of the Harvard resurgence.

“We were breaking out,” Walsh said after the games against Yale. “That certainly was a welcome surprise.”

The year turned into a tale of two seasons as the Crimson finally showed why Baseball America tabbed it as the favorite to win the Ancient Eight. Senior Taylor Meehan, the only All-Ivy selection on the squad, began to blister balls to the outfield and finished the year with a team-leading .330 average.

Vance, who started all 40 games, also picked up his play and finished the season ranked first on the team in runs, RBI, home runs, and stolen bases.

Harvard crushed Brown in a four-game sweep after the series with Yale, but then lost three of four to Rolfe Division champion Dartmouth.

The Crimson went 7-5—highlighted by the sweep of the Bears at home—to close the year after its dismal start and brought its league record back to respectability.

Senior Matt Kramer, who anchored the defense at catcher and first base, led the team in on base and slugging percentage but was not an All-Ivy selection.

“Matt Kramer hit at least .400 in league and absolutely deserved to be on that team,” Vance said. “I don’t know why he’s not.”

Senior Brad Unger led Harvard with a 4.19 ERA and Haviland, who had a down year by his standards, paced the team with four complete games and 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings. Haviland also ranked first on the squad in innings pitched and saves.

Next year, new talent will have to emerge, as the Crimson will need to fill four spots in the starting lineup and three holes in the pitching rotation.

“They have some guys that can fill our spots,” Vance said. “I’m not too worried. We expect the team next year to put up a good fight to win the Ivy League Championship.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.