SEASON RECAP: Offensive Slump Terminates Ancient Eight Title Hopes

In sports, it is often difficult to measure progress, especially when numbers fail to provide much insight. For the Harvard baseball team, which went 10-30 last year with an 8-12 Ivy League record, this season did not present much of a contrast statistically, but consistent observers of the Crimson would likely attest to the team’s improvement.

Harvard finished its 2009 campaign at 13-28, going 10-10 in conference play, in large part due to an injury-ravaged pitching staff that forced the Crimson to rely heavily on untested freshmen and sophomores. But Harvard also took steps towards future success.

“This year set the team up nicely to come back strong, especially with our pitching staff,” captain Harry Douglas said. “A lot of pitchers were forced to step up in big spots and get a lot of experience.”

The Crimson rotation was already full of question marks coming into the season, but more uncertainty was piled on after sophomore ace Max Perlman went down in his first start with an elbow injury and had to undergo Tommy John surgery.

“I don’t think you can lose your No. 1 pitcher—not only the No. 1 pitcher on our team but perhaps the No. 1 in the Northeast—and not feel it,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “Losing a big gun like Perlman—in retrospect, we just never were able to recover from that.”

But while the Crimson may not have rebounded from the early end to Perlman’s season, it did get an opportunity to preview its future.

While rookie hurlers like Brent Suter, Conner Hulse, Jonah Klees, and Will Keuper had their share of struggles, they also flashed potential.

Suter and Hulse especially impressed near the end of the season, leaving Harvard optimistic about boasting a formidable rotation next year.

“I thought the freshmen did a great job,” senior Tom Stack-Babich said. “It was pretty impressive. Ideally you wouldn’t like to have a bunch of freshmen out there learning on the go. It wasn’t the best for us this year, but it certainly should help the program.”

As rookies defined the Crimson’s pitching, Harvard’s seniors set the tone at the plate. Along with Douglas and Stack-Babich, Matt Rogers and Taylor Meehan put up big numbers, with Stack-Babich and Rogers combining for 17 home runs while Douglas and Meehan hit .342 and .331, respectively.

The Crimson fourth-years not only posted impressive statistics, but they also produced when their team needed them the most.

Douglas drove in the game-winning run in the final inning twice, while Meehan and Stack-Babich each blasted walk-off home runs this season.

“It was our last chance to make an impact,” Douglas said. “When we had a chance to come back in a game late, we were jumping on that opportunity.”

As it does every season, Harvard faced a tough early schedule, playing its first 16 games down south against nationally-competitive opponents. The Crimson only mustered two wins in its travels, and got off to a rough start in the Ivy League season, dropping both games of a doubleheader to Columbia.

But Harvard soon caught fire against its Ancient Eight foes, jumping out to an 8-4 league record and giving itself an outside chance to catch Rolfe Division-leading Dartmouth and earn a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series. Unfortunately for the Crimson, its offense hit a cold spell at the worst possible time, and the team suffered a sweep by Brown in a four-game series that knocked Harvard out of Rolfe contention.

“That was a real shot to the gut,” Stack-Babich said. “That made the next weekend not worth anything, which is always hard. It was pretty embarrassing.”

Still, the Crimson kept its pride in the final stretch of the season, splitting a four-game weekend set with the eventual Ivy champion Big Green and capping off the year with a thrilling comeback win in a 16-13 slugfest against Northeastern.

While Harvard’s final record was not ideal, the team recognizes the importance of the progress it made.

“I liked our ballclub,” Walsh said. “I thought every game we had a chance. For a team that played as many games as we did on the road, losing our No. 1, I guess that was kind of the philosophy. As Bill Parcells says, ‘You are what you are.’”

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