Baseball Loses Four Against Ivy Opponents

Pitching and defensive woes plagued the Harvard baseball team all weekend, leading to four losses against Ivy League opponents Penn and Columbia at O’Donnell Field.

The Crimson (5-18, 1-5 Ivy) allowed at least seven runs in every contest and committed a combined 11 errors, leading to 13 unearned runs.

“Coming into [the weekend], we knew we were a game back,” junior outfielder Mike Martin said. “It seemed like all the other Ivy League teams were pretty similar…. Our mindset was to win four. When it comes down to it, we didn’t play well together as a team.”

COLUMBIA 8, HARVARD 3

In the final game of the weekend, Harvard dug itself into an early hole and suffered an 8-3 defeat at the hands of the visiting Lions (11-15, 5-3).

Harvard senior starter Sam Dodge only lasted 2.2 innings on the hill, allowing four runs on four hits and two walks. After four Crimson arms struggled in game one, it took five different pitchers to get through the nine innings.

Adding to the labors of the Harvard pitching staff, three Crimson miscues on defense led to three unearned runs.

Senior outfielder Carlton Bailey had the team’s only extra base hit of the day and scored a run. Martin also provided a bright spot of his own, going 3-for-4 at the plate.

But the four through nine Crimson hitters couldn't get their bats going, recording just two hits on the game.

COLUMBIA 12, HARVARD 6

While the Crimson struck first for the only time of the weekend, the pitching staff could not find a way to avoid the big inning, as Harvard saw a 4-0 lead become an 8-4 deficit in the top of the fifth inning. The Crimson couldn’t recover and fell to Columbia, 12-6, in the first game on Sunday afternoon.

It was a pitch-by-committee sort of day for both squads, with neither starter finishing five complete innings, and Columbia’s Joey Donino throwing only three.

Looking for his first win of the season, freshman right hander Nick Gruener began the day strong, limiting the Columbia lineup to just one hit through four innings of work.

But then the wheels came off on the defensive end in the top of the fifth, as Crimson infielders committed two errors that led to three unearned runs.

The Lions continued their offensive onslaught after they knocked Gruener out of the game, scoring seven more runs off sophomore Nick Scahill and freshman Kevin Rex to put the game out of reach.

Though Harvard walked eight times to go along with its six hits, the team stranded 10 runners on base in the game.

“Early in the first game, at least today, we played well,” Bailey said. “One play turns it into a different ballgame. Basically [we need to] zone in to every play instead of taking a play off, a pitch off.”

PENN 9, HARVARD 6

After dropping the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Crimson found itself tied with the Quakers after five innings of play in the rubber contest. But Penn (15-10, 8-0) scored a combined six runs in the final four frames to secure the sweep by a score of 9-6.

Six different Harvard pitchers took the hill in the game. Junior starter Matt Timoney surrendered just two earned runs in six innings, but the team’s relievers could not stop the Penn offense in the later innings.

The Crimson tied the game with three runs in the bottom of the fourth after three Harvard hitters singled to begin the inning. Penn infielders helped the Crimson’s cause by committing two errors in the frame.

Harvard’s top three hitters—Bailey, co-captain Kyle Larrow, and Martin—registered a combined seven hits on the game. But despite out-hitting the Quakers, 11-9, the Crimson struggled to move runners around and left 10 men on base.

PENN 7, HARVARD 3

With two innings left to play in the first game of the weekend, the Crimson appeared to be in control. A three-run fifth had given Harvard a 3-1 lead over the Quakers, and the team’s ace in sophomore Sean Poppen returned to the mound.

But nothing went right for the Crimson after that. Penn scored three times in the top of the sixth to take back the lead, and the visitors tacked on another trio of runs in the next frame to secure a 7-3 victory.

The decisive sixth inning saw the Quakers string together three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Just minutes later—after a fielder’s choice, a sacrifice fly, and a squeeze—all three runners had crossed the plate, Poppen had been removed from the game, and Penn had taken a lead it would not surrender.

Harvard’s big inning came in the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by an RBI double from Bailey off the wall in center field. With two knocks, Bailey was the only Crimson player to register more than one hit in the game.

“We came into the weekend trying to do something big and show everyone that we can compete,” Bailey said. “We dropped the ball a few times and didn’t get key hits when we needed to. It just didn’t work out for us this weekend.”

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu. Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at david.steinbach@thecrimson.com