Baseball Splits Home Doubleheaders with Columbia, Penn

Two extra-inning defeats condemned the Harvard baseball team (9-17, 2-6 Ivy) to an encouraging but somewhat heart-breaking weekend against Ancient Eight rivals Columbia and Penn. The Crimson won the opening game on both Saturday and Sunday but lost in 11 innings in the second half of each doubleheader.

The Lions (9-18, 3-4) couldn’t keep up with the Harvard offense in the first game but rebounded, riding a two-run ninth inning to a comeback victory in the second. The Quakers (13-14, 5-3) responded to a morning loss on Sunday with a late comeback and extra-inning heroics of their own.

“I think any time you go into a series, you want to try to get three of the four,” coach Bill Decker said. “We got people in the right positions and we need a guy to step up and deliver that big hit…. We got two guys up with the bases loaded to win it [against Penn], and it didn’t go our way.”

PENN 6, HARVARD 5 (11 INNINGS)

The Crimson lost another hard-fought affair in 11 innings to round out the weekend. Freshman righty Kevin Stone was tagged for four runs in four-plus innings of work, allowing a couple of runs to cross the plate in the top of the third. His offense responded in the bottom of the fourth, with junior catcher Josh Ellis following up junior shortstop Drew Reid’s RBI single with a two-run double down the left field line to give his team a 3-2 lead. The catcher had a game-high three RBIs. Sophomore Matt Rothenberg also had a two-hit game, and freshman center fielder Ben Skinner also recorded a run for the Crimson.

Penn shortstop Ryan Mincher hit a two-run two-bagger of his own in the top of the fifth to restore the Quakers’ lead, 5-4, only to see the Crimson load the bases and then score two thanks to a walk and sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth.

Mincher’s RBI double tied things up in the top of the ninth before Chris Rabasco’s RBI single off of freshman Simon Rosenblum-Larson earned the Quakers a win.

HARVARD 3, PENN 2 (7 INNINGS)

Behind strong pitching and timely hitting, the Crimson overcame struggles at the plate to defeat the Quakers in the shortened opener of Sunday’s doubleheader, 3-2. Sophomore starter Ian Miller walked five and struck out four in three innings of two-run ball. Senior lefty Shaun Rubin earned the win thanks to four scoreless innings in relief of Miller, who fanned four over three innings and alowed just four hits and two runs.

A run in two of the first three innings gave Penn a 2-0 lead after three, with leadoff hitter and center fielder Gary Tesch hitting an RBI single in the top of the second. Catcher Matt O’Neill’s groundout to second then scored Mincher to double the Quakers’ advantage. Harvard responded with three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning off of Penn starter Mike Reitcheck. Skinner hit an RBI single to right before senior second baseman Mitch Klug’s grounder forced a Quaker error that plated two more runs.

COLUMBIA 4,

HARVARD 3, (11 INNINGS)

The Crimson suffered a heart-breaking loss in the second leg of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Lions, falling by a single run in 11 innings. Despite tying the game with a run in the bottom of the ninth, Harvard was unable to outlast its Ancient Eight rival in extras.

Senior ace Sean Poppen pitched five innings of one-run ball, exiting with a 2-1 lead, but Columbia scored two in the ninth and then one in the top of the eleventh to grab a road win.

Sophomore third baseman John Fallon continued his power streak with his fifth home run of the season, the most in the Ivy League, roping a belt-high pitch into the trees beyond the left field wall to give his team a 2-1 lead after four innings. The score stayed that way into the ninth inning, when Lions’ first baseman Nick Maguire hit a two-run single off of senior righty T.J. Laurisch to give Columbia a 3-2 advantage.

Skinner responded in the bottom of the frame with a two-out, RBI triple but was stranded at third. The Crimson would come to regret that, when Shane Adams plated Maguire with a single up the middle off of senior southpaw Sean O’Neill.

HARVARD 11,

COLUMBIA 3 (7 INNINGS)

The Crimson offense started off the weekend in style, recording its second double-digit output of the season in support of junior right-hander Nick Gruener. Two freshmen played central roles in the outburst, with freshmen Pat McColl and Trent Bryan combining for five hits and nine RBIs.

Gruener pitched his fourth consecutive complete game in the shortened game, striking out eight Lions batters in seven innings of three-run ball.

“I felt strong,” Gruener said. “My arm’s been feeling really good, and I think that I hit 94-95 again, which is pretty exciting. The team hit well behind me, scored a lot of runs, and I can win any game if I get that hitting.”

McColl opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI groundout to first and then added an RBI single in the bottom of the third to extend the team’s lead to 3-0. The Lions got one run back in the top of the fourth after an RBI double before Harvard quickly responded with four in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-1 lead.

The Crimson put the game to bed one inning later, with Bryan’s bases-clearing double resulting in three runs and McColl’s single, the final of his career-high five RBIs, pushing the lead to 11-1.

–Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.