Baseball Opens Weekend Strong with Twinbill Sweep

After weeks of splitting doubleheaders, the Crimson came through with two wins when it counted.

The Harvard baseball team swept division leader Dartmouth in Saturday’s twinbill, besting the Big Green, 8-4, before topping the rival team in the nightcap, 15-7, at O’Donnell Field.

The wins kept the Crimson alive in the race for the Red Rolfe Division title, giving seniors a pair of victories on Senior Day and handing Dartmouth its first pair of losses in an Ivy doubleheader in over three years. Harvard would have needed to repeat its feat yesterday to clinch the division title, but the Big Green took those contests.

“We are just trying to take it inning by inning right now,” said senior first baseman Dan Zailskas. “We have to win four games in a row, so we are just trying to keep focused on every single pitch.”

“It was a nice day today, but it doesn’t mean anything unless we finish it off tomorrow,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh continued. “I’m happy for the guys since we’ve been splitting...all year, so it’s nice to win two.”

HARVARD 15, DARTMOUTH 7

Errors on the field are often mistakes that can come back to haunt a team. Luckily for the Crimson, this wasn’t the case during the nightcap.

Harvard tallied five errors in its 15-7 victory over the Big Green, which posted four miscues of its own.

“We did have some errors, but I don’t think many of them hurt us too bad,” junior captain Tyler Albright said. “Generally, four or five errors hurts us a lot, but when our hitters get a lot of hits and get a lot of innings going for us with a lot of runs, it doesn’t matter.”

The errors were secondary when the runs kept coming.

After a quiet start in the first three innings, the Crimson would go on to bang out a season-high of 19 hits. Sophomore Marcus Way helped to dent the scoreboard in the fourth for Harvard with a sacrifice fly to center field to knock in junior Sean O’Hara, who had previously doubled. Zailskas then followed with a single to right for the second run. Sophomore J.T. Tomes bunted for a single, and the runners advanced to second a third on a throwing error, allowing Zailskas to later score the third run of the inning on a wild pitch.

Although Dartmouth was able to tie it up in the top of the fifth, the Crimson was not about to slow down. The home team followed up with three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings for a 9-3 lead.

Dartmouth capitalized on two Harvard errors and a walk to shrink the Crimson’s lead to 9-7 in the top of the seventh, but Harvard quickly gained back an unearned run. The Crimson secured its position in the eighth when Way and sophomore Jeff Reynolds each hit two-run singles, and another score off a wild pitch brought the final count to 15-7.

The Crimson finished the night with Reynolds going 5-for-6, junior Dillon O’Neill, O’Hara, and Albright having three hits, and Way notching five RBI. Junior pitcher Eric Eadington supported the offense with a solid 6.1 innings of work, allowing six runs—but just one earned—and striking out three.

“We had good momentum in both games,” Albright said. “We hit well and just kept going out. We never had one big inning where we scored a lot, but we scored a lot by scoring few and often.”

HARVARD 8, DARTMOUTH 4

The Crimson started the afternoon slowly as well, but the resilient squad dominated the middle innings to cruise to an 8-4 victory in the first game of the twinbill.

Three scoreless innings were broken in the top of the fourth when Dartmouth junior Jason Brookes plated sophomore Joe Sclafani on a two-out single to take the early lead.

It didn’t last for long. O’Hara doubled down the line and was brought in by Albright’s single up the middle to tie the game.

After Albright was picked off, Zailskas, senior Chris Rouches, and freshman Kyle Larrow pounded consecutive two-out singles to score another run. O’Neill then belted the ball to left-center field for two more RBI.

“Knowing that we were behind in the [first] game and were able to get on top was a real big boost to us,” Walsh said. “[We] got the lid off there and got the 4-1 lead even though they climbed back on it.”

Although the Big Green bounced back in the fifth to cut the Harvard advantage to one, another Crimson four-spot secured the lead. Albright plated junior Sam Franklin with a sacrifice fly to center field. Rouches’ fly down the right-field line was then dropped for an error, allowing O’Hara to score and Harvard to stay at the plate. Larrow followed by lacing the ball into left field, where a bad bounce past the fielder helped the Crimson to score two more, bringing the lead to 8-3.

A homer by Dartmouth freshman Zack Bellanger in the seventh was not enough to help the Big Green come back. Sophomore hurler Brent Suter kept Dartmouth in check, remaining unbeaten in Ivy play by striking out six and allowing five hits in his second complete game of the season.

“Our first game, [Suter] threw a gem for us,” Albright said. “He threw hard...and threw a lot of strikes. He did very good for us.”

Suter was supported by an offense that delivered, allowing the Crimson to clinch the first win of the twinbill.

“We are very hot and cold, and it’s very contagious,” Zailskas said. “Once one guy starts hitting, everybody else seems to follow suit...We are confident right now, and we’ve really come together as a team the past few days.”

—Staff writer Stephanie E. Herwatt can be reached at sherwatt@college.harvard.edu.