Rocky Campaign Closes With a Loss

After a year of ups and downs, it was fitting that the Harvard baseball team’s season came to an end on a hill.

It was in Chestnut Hill, Mass., that the Crimson (17-26, 10-10 Ivy) fell Wednesday afternoon, 7-3, in an intrastate battle with Boston College (26-20) in the team’s season finale.

“It was our last game; we wanted to have fun with it,” junior catcher Tyler Albright said. “We gave them a good run.”

Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Eagles took advantage of a two-out throwing error by Crimson sophomore shortstop Jeff Reynolds to score four unearned runs and take a lead they would never relinquish.

Harvard got the scoring going in the top of the first, when junior Dillon O’Neill singled, stole second and third base, and then scored on a two-out single to center by Albright.

“I felt pretty good at the plate,” O’Neill said. “I got some good pitches to hit, [and] I was just trying to be a good leadoff guy, get in scoring position in the first.”

Boston College responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame, after second baseman Matt Hamlet doubled to left off Harvard’s starter, junior Max Perlman, and then was singled in by rightfielder John Spatola.

Perlman was able to get out of the inning by getting third baseman Anthony Melchionda to ground into a 6-4-3 double-play, leaving two runners stranded and keeping the score tied at one.

Harvard was held hitless for the next two innings by Eagles starter Dane Clemons.

After a walk and hit batsman put the Crimson in business in the top of the third, BC leftfielder Mike Sudol made a great catch of a Reynolds fly ball that sent him crashing into the wall and saved two runs.

In the bottom of the inning, the Eagles took the lead when Spatola homered to right off Perlman.

The Eagles’ 2-1 advantage held until the top of the fifth, when Harvard freshman second baseman Kyle Larrow and O’Neill started things off with back-to-back singles to left, chasing Clemens.

They would both score on RBI groundouts by Reynolds and senior first baseman Chris Rouches, putting the Crimson back in front.

In the bottom of the inning, the wheels came off for Harvard. After a flyout, a walk, a Perlman balk, and a strikeout, BC first baseman Mickey Wiswall was able to reach on Reynolds’ throwing error that allowed one run to score.

“It was a bad time to make an error obviously,” Reynolds said. “If I had made the play, it would’ve ended the inning, so I guess it was pretty huge.”

Reynolds’ error was followed by a Spatola RBI single, a walk, and another RBI single by Melchionda, causing manager Joe Walsh to replace Perlman with senior Jon Strangio. Strangio gave up an RBI hit to Sudol but was able to keep the damage at four runs.

The righty, who missed his entire junior season and most of his sophomore year due to injury, went the distance for the Crimson, throwing 3.1 innings of one-run ball in his final collegiate game.

“It was good to send him out on top,” Albright said. “He threw real well for us...everyone was pretty excited for him.”

The Harvard offense was unable to muster any sort of rally against the BC bullpen over the final four innings, recording only one hit.

“We ran into some good pitching, as we have every time we face BC,” Reynolds said.

The Eagles added another run on an RBI single by Wiswall in the sixth, putting BC ahead by what would become the final score, 7-3.

Perlman took the loss for the Crimson, allowing six runs (two earned) in 4.2 innings and finishing the year with a record of 1-2. Hunter Gordon picked up the victory for the Eagles after throwing two scoreless innings in relief of Clemens.

O’Neill and Larrow each had two hits, accounting for four of the Crimson’s six hits on the afternoon. Spatola and Hamlet each had three hits for Boston College.

Despite ending the season on a sour note, the Crimson took the loss in stride.

“Baseball’s a luck game sometimes, and things just didn’t go our way,” O’Neill said.

—Staff writer Scott Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.