Baseball Picks Up First Win of Season

For the second straight weekend, the Harvard baseball team traveled to play four games in a warmer climate. Unlike last time out, the Crimson came back to Cambridge with a win under its belt.

Harvard (1-7) earned its first W of the season over Lamar (11-6) in Beaumont, Texas, with a clean 4-0 victory Friday night. But the team’s struggles in close games continued, as the Crimson dropped a pair of one-run contests on Saturday and fell, 10-3, in the final game of the series on Sunday.

LAMAR 10, HARVARD 3

Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Crimson could not hang on in the late innings and settled for a loss to end the four-game set.

Things fell apart for Harvard in the seventh inning, when the Big Red strung together six singles and posted five runs to seize the lead. Lamar put the game firmly out of reach with a three-run homer from Jacoby Middleton in the eighth.

In his second pitching appearance of the weekend, junior Tanner Anderson took the loss for the Crimson. The Harvard pitching staff struggled against the middle of the Lamar lineup, as the third through sixth hitters went a combined 10-for-14.

For the Crimson, the highlight of the day came in the first inning when junior Mike Martin led off the game with a solo shot to left field. Harvard managed ten hits of its own—three players, Martin included, finished with two knocks—but the Lamar staff ensured that the hits were scattered.

LAMAR 3, HARVARD 2

Down one run in the top of the ninth, the Crimson found itself in a familiar spot. This time, Harvard successfully broke through to tie the game, as sophomore Mike Klug reached on a leadoff walk and scored on an RBI groundout from senior Carlton Bailey to send the game into extras.

But the first two Big Red hitters reached base in the bottom of the tenth, and a single two batters later allowed Lamar to walk off with another win in the rubber match of Saturday’s doubleheader.

The game was marked by effective pitching on both sides. Senior Sam Dodge made it into the seventh inning, giving up zero earned runs and just four hits. Dodge escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second and retired seven straight in one stretch.

“We really threw in the zone and weren’t walking too many guys,” Anderson said. “We were making them hit. We were really just trying to throw strikes and letting our defense do the work behind us.”

Harvard could never get things going at the plate, as a trio of Big Red pitchers held the team to just four hits in ten innings. Junior Brandon Kregel registered the Crimson’s only extra-base hit, a double that plated the first run of the game in the sixth.

LAMAR 4, HARVARD 3

After falling behind by four runs, the Crimson nearly clawed all the way back in the first game of the doubleheader. A four-hit sixth inning plated two runs, and Kregel tacked on an RBI groundout to bring Harvard within one.

But the Crimson would come up just short. After loading the bases with two outs in the eighth, Martin fouled out to end the threat. And despite putting a pair of runners in scoring position with one down in the top of the ninth, two consecutive outs resulted in Harvard dropping another tight decision.

“We really have to finish games off,” Anderson said. “We struggled a little on the mound and they put a few runs on us, but that’s something we have to come back from.”

The Crimson dug itself into an early hole by surrendering three runs in the first two innings. In his second collegiate start, freshman Nick Gruener walked the first two batters of the game and gave up a two-out double that scored both.

After a two-out rally resulted in another run Big Red run in the second, freshman Nick Gruener would settle down and complete six innings having allowed four earned runs.

The top six hitters in the Crimson’s lineup all registered knocks in the game, but the Harvard could not overcome the 14 men it left on base.

HARVARD 4, LAMAR 0

After dropping four tight contests last weekend, the Crimson finally got itself in the win column Friday night. Harvard rode strong pitching, timely hitting, and error-free defense to a 4-0 victory in the first game of the series.

Sophomore Sean Poppen blew through the Big Red lineup in six dominant innings, scattering just four hits while striking out eight. Poppen left the game after retiring seven consecutive batters, and Anderson would enter in the eighth to record a five-out save.

Harvard put two runs on the board in the second frame with back-to-back RBI singles from Bailey and Klug. That would prove to be enough for the Crimson pitching staff, but the team tacked on another run in the fifth inning and successfully executed a squeeze in the eighth.

Both Anderson and Kregel – who combined for just one hit in four games against Oral Roberts – saw their bats come alive, as each registered three knocks in the contest.

“Most of the games were pretty close,” Anderson said. “The first one was pretty good; the shutout is always nice. After that I thought we played pretty well, but it didn’t really fall our way.”

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com.