Saathoff Goes Yard but Crimson Drops Game Two

The Harvard-Yale rivalry is still alive through baseball season as the two teams split their four-game series to remain tied for second in the Red Rolfe Division of the Ivy League.

The Crimson (8-24, 5-7 Ivy) took the 6-2 victory in the first game Sunday afternoon largely thanks to a three-run homer by sophomore Nick Saathoff in the bottom of the fourth.

But in the following contest, the Bulldogs (8-21, 5-7) took an early lead thanks to a shaky Harvard defensive start and beat the home team for the second time this weekend, 5-2.

It was an evenly-matched set of games between the two teams, who battled for a total of almost five hours in the early spring chill.

YALE 5, HARVARD 2

The tables turned quickly in the first inning of the second game as Yale came out with a homerun into the bushes behind right field by sophomore David Toups on the first pitch of the game.

The Bulldogs scored again on a sacrifice RBI to left field by freshman Nate Adams, giving them a 2-0 lead to start the final game of the series.

Harvard coach Bill Decker knew something was different in his team’s play in the second match.

“We have some guys trying to play through with injuries, so I think fatigue got to them,” Decker said. “We’re down to one catcher, so [freshman DJ Link] had to play all four games this weekend.”

The action slowed down a bit in the rest of the game, which lasted almost twice as long as the first game, at three hours and 11 minutes.

Yale collected four of its nine hits for the game in the first frame. The Crimson also had nine hits, but no runs were scored until the bottom of the fourth, when a fielding error and a base hit gave Harvard two unearned runs to tie up the game. Despite evening the scoreboard, the Crimson did not score again, and by the end of nine innings, it left a total of 13 men on base.

“We could probably improve on doing our job at the plate—getting guys over when we need to and scoring when players are in scoring position,” sophomore infielder Tanner Anderson said.

The Bulldogs also left men on after their half-innings, including leaving the bases loaded at the end of both the fifth and sixth innings.

Both teams struggled on the mound, relying on their bullpens for more than one reliever.

“[Junior Baron] Davis gave us five pretty good innings,” Decker said. “But you can’t walk as many runners as we did, or hit batters. Those are free bases.”

Davis hit two batters in the top of the fifth, with the second knocking the helmet off of Yale senior Chris Piwinski. Davis gave up six hits and only recorded one strikeout.

Davis and junior reliever Peter Kaplan each amassed four walks, while co-captain closer Jordan Haviland recorded one more in the sixth.

“These four-game series, they’re a grind,” Decker said. “I felt like we got a little tired at the end. But Haviland has been pretty steady for us all year. He did a pretty good job trying to close for us. “

“We wanted to get four against Yale,” Anderson added. “That obviously didn’t happen, but I don’t think we’re in a bad mood about it. We played good games, they played good games, and they were all very close.”

HARVARD 6, YALE 2

The Crimson’s stronger game was the first of the day, when a combination of big scoring and solid pitching carried the team.

A few innings after a base hit and an RBI in the opening inning by Yale senior Josh Scharff, Saathoff got Harvard on the board. He sent a ball deep over the fence behind right field for his first homer and Harvard’s fourth of the season.

After a sacrifice RBI for the Bulldogs by junior Jacob Hunter in the fifth, the Crimson kept its lead by scoring three more runs in the bottom half of the inning. Anderson hit a two-RBI single up the middle.

Anderson also pitched all seven innings for Harvard, with 60 of his 94 pitches being strikes.

“Tanner pitched it pretty well,” Decker said. “He also hit the ball, and hit it well.”

“I think we came out playing pretty well,” Anderson added. “Our defense was supporting [me] behind the mound.”