Baseball Ends Weekend 2-2 Against Brown

For the second day in a row, the Harvard baseball team took the first game of a doubleheader but could not finish the deal in the rubber match.

Playing against Brown (5-28, 3-13 Ivy) in a doubleheader in Providence, R.I., the Crimson (10-26, 7-9) took advantage of a seventh-inning comeback in game one and a pair of runs in the tenth inning to capture the first game, 4-2.

But the Harvard offense could not get going in the fourth game of the weekend, and Brown was able to salvage the split, winning by the same margin as its defeat in the first contest.

The split leaves the Crimson four games behind leader Dartmouth (26-7, 11-5) in the Red Rolfe Division heading into the showdown between the two teams in the final series of play next weekend.

“This team never gets down,” co-captain Rob Wineski said. “That’s just our nature; that’s our personality. Good things always can happen to us. We don’t want to give up on anything, and we know some guys are going to come through at some point during the game to give us a chance to win.”

BROWN 4, HARVARD 2

In the second game of the day, the Crimson got the scoring started early but could not sustain it. Although Harvard was held scoreless for seven straight innings, the team found itself with the potential winning run at the plate in the top of the ninth, but ultimately it could not convert.

Sophomore Lucas Whitehill earned the win for the Bears, going eight strong innings while only allowing four hits. Junior pitcher Baron Davis battled into the eighth inning for the Crimson, but ended up surrendering three earned runs and was credited with the loss.

Harvard got the scoring started in the top half of the first when a double from sophomore outfielder Brandon Kregel brought in sophomore infielder Matt Timoney. Kregel was the only member of the Crimson to have multiple hits in the game.

Brown managed to even the score in the bottom of the first after an error brought home a run.

The score remained 1-1 for two more innings before the Bears tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth on two hits, a wild pitch, and a stolen base.

After sophomore Wes Van Boom homered for Brown in the bottom of the eighth, Harvard entered the ninth down, 4-1. But the Crimson would not go away quietly, mounting a rally in its last at-bats of the day.

Harvard loaded the bases with one out, and Timoney was hit by a pitch to plate the team’s first run since the beginning of the game. But after a pitching change, Kregel bounced a ball to the third baseman, who stepped on the bag and threw the sophomore out at first to complete the double-play and end the game.

“We had the bases loaded, but it’s never the last inning that gets you, it’s the innings before,” Wineski said. “We were right there.”

HARVARD 4, BROWN 2

Finding itself down two runs entering the final inning of a seven-inning game and not having threatened in the first six frames, the Crimson took advantage of three errors from the Bears to score a pair of runs and force extra innings.

After Harvard tagged out the potential game-winning run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the team took the lead for good in the next inning. A bases-loaded single from Kregel plated the team’s third run of the game, and the fourth followed two batters later after sophomore infielder Nick Saathoff earned an RBI walk.

Sophomore pitcher Tanner Anderson went the distance on the mound, throwing 138 pitches in all ten innings without surrendering a single earned run on six hits.

“He’s a bulldog; he’s going to go out there and compete,” Kregel said. “For him to go out and go ten innings on the mound and in the second game play second base, that just shows a lot about the player he is in general. His mindset is such a competitive mindset, it’s just unbelievable.”

Brown scored its only runs of the game in the bottom of the third. With two outs and runners on second and third, an error in the Crimson infield allowed the batter to reach and both runners to score.

Neither team pushed across any additional runs until the top of the seventh, when Harvard tied the game without registering any hits. A walk and two errors allowed Saathoff to score the first run of the inning, and a third error a batter later brought home freshman infielder Mitch Klug to force extras.

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu.