Harvard Starts Strong But Falters At Metrodome

Coming off of its best start in three seasons, the Harvard baseball team has so far fulfilled predictions for strong performances on the mound. Unfortunately, this past weekend saw the squad drop two out of three games at the Metrodome Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn.

“Pitching, that’s been the highlight of our trip,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said, “Our three starting pitchers have all given us very good outings.”

With the help of its junior and sophomore starting hurlers, the Crimson (3-3) beat Creighton (8-4) on the last day of tournament play, after falling to Minnesota (5-9) and South Dakota State (8-4) on Friday and Saturday.

“It was a good experience for us to play in the dome on a major league field for the weekend,” junior captain Tyler Albright said. “And it was good for us to get out of there with a win and get some momentum going into the week.”

HARVARD 5, CREIGHTON 2

In its last game of the weekend, Harvard was able to take down the Bluejays thanks to the Crimson’s deciding runs late in the game.

“It was a real team effort on Sunday,” Albright said. “And we saw some really great offensive production from our lineup.”

Sophomore Jeff Reynolds hit a single to center field, and senior Dan Zailskas hit a double to left, each for an RBI to put Harvard ahead in the sixth inning. Reynolds and fellow sophomore Marcus Way both contributed two more RBI off doubles in the eighth to build up the Crimson’s lead.

Reynolds also contributed to team defense at second base, along with junior Sean O’Hara at shortstop.

“We had O’Hara and Reynolds in the middle making terrific plays and saving some runs with diving catches [that] really helped us a lot,” Walsh said.

Against Harvard’s starting pitcher, junior Eric Eadington, Creighton was only able to get two runs and five hits in the first seven innings of play. The Crimson lefty also avoided walking any Bluejay batters during his time on the mound.

Zailskas came in as relief and allowed the opponent only one hit in two innings to secure Harvard’s three-run victory.

“We had some great pitching,” Walsh said. “And I think we played our best baseball game of the year against Creighton.”

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 7, HARVARD 4

With seven innings already in the books in Saturday’s game, it looked like the Crimson was headed towards its third win of the season, but the Jackrabbits had something else in mind.

South Dakota State junior Jesse Sawyer batted in the Jackrabbits’ tying run in the top of the eighth, as well as the base-clearing three-run triple to end the game after ten grueling innings of play.

“[Sophomore pitcher] Connor Hulse did a great job leading late into the ball game, but our bullpen kind of fell apart, getting behind hitters and walking guys,” Walsh said. “[Sophomore Jonah] Klees and [freshman Robert] Wineski were just getting banged up a little bit.”

In the end, South Dakota State’s powerful offense proved too much for Harvard to handle.

MINNESOTA 7, HARVARD 1

On the first day of the tournament, the Golden Gophers defeated the Crimson in a gritty defensive game.

Sophomore Brent Suter started on the mound and kept Minnesota’s lead to within two runs, but a late streak of Golden Gopher batters broke open the game and created a deficit Harvard couldn’t match.

Minnesota’s junior pitcher Seth Rosin, who struck out 12 Harvard batters, kept the Crimson’s offense quiet for the day.

“We had a really tough time catching up to his fastball,” Walsh said. “It was just great pitching that stopped us.”

Harvard recorded five hits, but with only one run, it wasn’t enough to avoid the loss.

The Metrodome Tournament marked the beginning of the Crimson’s busy schedule, and the remaining matches of this ten-game road trip could bring some unexpected challenges.

Harvard is dealing with injury-related setbacks to key players including junior pitcher Max Perlman and Albright behind the plate, but a string of freshman pitchers looks to bring fresh talent to the field.

“They’re going to see a lot of innings,” Albright said. “And the most important thing is to get them used to being on the mound in some high stress situations where we’ll be relying on them to get outs.”

But no matter the outcome, the team is looking to enjoy the rest of the trip.

“All I say, is that they’re getting to play baseball everyday on spring break,” Walsh said. “With this great group of kids, it’s something special. Team morale’s going to be high, win or lose.”

—Staff writer Madeleine Smith can be reached at smith21@college.harvard.edu.