Army Sweeps Baseball in Series of Close Contests

Road woes continue for the Harvard baseball team. Despite amassing early leads in two of four games and keeping three contests within a run, the Crimson (1-16) dropped four tight matchups at Army (15-6) on Friday and Saturday, increasing its current losing streak to 11.

“As a whole, we played pretty well,” sophomore infielder Carlton Bailey said. “We just didn’t really get key hits when they were needed. But our deficits were by only one or two runs, so it wasn’t like we got blown out. We just didn’t produce when we needed to.”

Sophomore infielder Jake McGuiggan continued, “Eleven of our 16 losses have been by one or two runs. You could say we’re the best one-win team in the country. I think that bodes well for when we start Ivy games this weekend.”

Harvard has played its first 17 games on the road and will add five more to that number before finally returning to O’Donnell Field on April 4.

ARMY 7, HARVARD 6 (10 inn.)

With the Crimson down 6-4 in the eighth inning in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, McGuiggan hit a timely double to drive in freshman centerfielder Mike Martin and sophomore left fielder Jack Colton, tying the score at six apiece. But Army broke the stalemate in the bottom of the 10th, closing out the series with a fourth straight win over the Crimson, 7-6, on what McGuiggan believed was a questionable call.

“It was bases loaded with one out, and obviously, if they score they win,” McGuiggan said. “They hit a ground ball to second baseman [Jeff Reynolds] who tried to tag the runner…. From where I was standing at shortstop, it looked like [the runner] stepped on the grass, but the umpire called him safe, the run scored, and they won.”

After Reynolds scored a run in the first, Army took over, outscoring Harvard, 5-1, in the first five frames. The Crimson started to stage a comeback in the sixth inning, as junior third baseman Kyle Larrow keyed a three-run frame for the Crimson with an RBI single down the right, plating Colton and sophomore first baseman Steven Dill. Martin scored the inning’s final run on McGuiggan’s sacrifice fly to center field.

Harvard tied it up in the eighth inning, but after a scoreless ninth, Army designated hitter Mike McCants grounded out to drive in the winning run.

ARMY 1, HARVARD 0

Earlier on Saturday, Harvard held Army scoreless for all but one inning, falling once again as a third-inning RBI single lifted Army to a 1-0 victory.

Because the contest was the first in the day’s twinbill, the game was only seven innings as opposed to the customary nine.

“It’s tough to play two less innings, especially when you lose 1-0,” McGuiggan said. “If this game was the second game, we would have six more outs to deal with and potentially be able to get a run across. Coach always says, ‘It’s not really a baseball game unless it’s nine innings.’”

Both of the Crimson’s  two hits in the contest came off the bat of shortstop Carlton Bailey. Junior captain Andrew Ferreira took the loss for Harvard after 4.2 innings and four strikeouts.

“I’m sure the rest of the team feels this way too, but it’s pretty frustrating,” Bailey said of the squad’s close losses. “We’re always right there—a hit away—from taking games away from very good teams. We’re doing all we can in practice to make sure we can get that extra hit, so instead of losing by one, we can win by one or more.”

ARMY 5, HARVARD 4

In the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, the Crimson led, 4-0, heading into the bottom of the seventh. But five straight Army runs that inning sealed a comeback win for the Black Knights, 5-4.

Harvard scored three runs on two hits in the fourth inning, beginning with a sacrifice fly from McGuiggan to drive home Reynolds. Freshman designated hitter Ethan Ferreira homered into left center later in the frame, knocking home Colton. Ferreira’s two hits and two RBI led the team in both categories.

Harvard stretched its lead to four in the top of the seventh, as McGuiggan scored on a pitching error. On his six innings on the mound. junior Joey Novak helped the Crimson hold the lead, shutting out the Black Knights while allowing just three hits.

But the Harvard pitching staff struggled in the seventh, giving up five runs on three hits in the inning to seal the loss.

ARMY 4, HARVARD 2

The Crimson started off slowly in the first contest of the weekend, as the Black Knights scored three runs in the first inning and eventually came away with the win, 4-2, on Friday afternoon.

Harvard got the game to within one run in the fifth, as Ferreira batted in McGuiggan and Bailey with a double to left center. But Army scored again in the bottom of that same inning, pushing its lead to two runs, a deficit from which the Crimson would not recover.

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu.