BRIEF: Baseball Downed by Columbia, Penn in Ivy-Opening Play

The Harvard baseball team entered Ivy League play this weekend with a three-game win streak and a 10-8 record to its name. After its midweek clash with Holy Cross was postponed due to rain, the Crimson looked to continue its hot hitting as it traveled to Columbia and Penn for its first conference matchups of the year.

Unfortunately for the squad coming out of Cambridge, the team’s pronounced road woes continued, as it dropped all four games and saw its record away from home go to 1-11.

The Lions first downed Harvard, 2-0 and 5-1, on Saturday, which was followed by the red-hot Quakers defeating the Crimson, 4-0 and 7-4, on Sunday. Though Columbia and Penn are by no means top teams in the Ivy, the weekend’s games illustrated the unpredictability of conference play and the magnitude of the trek ahead for Harvard.

The weekend dropped the Crimson to 10-12 overall and an 0-4 start in Ivy play.

PENN 7, HARVARD 4

The visitor’s weekend closed out on a sour note, as Harvard saw an early 3-0 lead evaporate, and three-run innings in the home half of the second and seventh innings helped the streaking Quakers (11-9, 2-0 Ivy League) to a 7-4 nightcap win over the Crimson. The win was Penn’s ninth in a row.

Junior Matt Rothenberg opened the scoring for Harvard, doubling down the right-field line in the top of the first to score leadoff man senior Drew Reid, and senior Matt Hink followed with a two-RBI knock a few batters later to give the Crimson a 3-0 lead out of the gates.

The Quakers took one back in the bottom of the first, but the big blow came from Penn sophomore Matt O’Neill, who hit a three-run homer in the second inning to put the Quakers on top, 4-3.

Harvard freshman Quinn Hoffman tied the game with an RBI in the fourth, but three runs—one unearned—off freshman righty Grant Stone in the seventh gave Penn the series sweep.

PENN 4, HARVARD 0

The Crimson’s bats were silenced for the second time this weekend in Sunday’s opener, as Harvard’s offense was held to three hits in a 4-0 loss.

Sophomore outfielder Patrick Robinson had two of the Crimson’s three hits, but the rest of the lineup wasn’t able to rustle up enough support for starter Simon Rosenblum-Larson. The sophomore righty took the loss with a line of 5.0 innings pitched, six hits, and three earned runs given up.

Penn struck first on a bases-loaded single in the first and added insurance in the seventh with two more tallies to close out the scoring. Quaker senior Jake Cousins got the win on the mound, lowering his ERA to 1.42 in 30+ innings of work this season.

Combined with the nightcap, Penn lowered its team ERA to an Ivy League-leading 3.40.

COLUMBIA 5, HARVARD 1

Harvard punched in 11 hits but could only push one run across the plate in a 5-1 loss to Columbia (5-15, 2-2) in the Saturday nightcap.

Junior righty Noah Zavolas got the start for the Crimson and went 7.1 innings, but a four-run sixth inning in which eight Lions stepped up to the plate did most of the damage. Zavolas also struck out five in the loss.

Harvard had runners on the bags all day long—all but two innings saw the Crimson get at least one hit—but couldn’t convert.

In the fourth inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Reid hit a line drive that went straight to the shortstop and turned into an inning-ending double play. In the eighth, with two runners on and the tying run at the plate, freshman Chad Minato was picked off at second base to end the Crimson’s threat.

COLUMBIA 2, HARVARD 0

Coming off a huge scoring outburst against Army and being shut out a week later, 2-0, by a pitching staff that sported a team ERA of 6.22, perhaps took Harvard aback and deflated the rest of its weekend.

In Saturday’s opener, the Crimson slotted emerging ace junior Ian Miller and threw out a lineup against Columbia akin to the ones that scored in the double digits against Army.

While Miller threw six innings—yet another complete game, part of an abbreviated seven-inning game—and gave up just two earned runs, the offense mustered just three hits and two walks in the loss.

Sophomore lefty Josh Simpson went the distance for the Lions as well, scattering three hits over seven innings and shutting Harvard out. The pitcher’s duel ended in the Lion’s favor after a sac fly in the first and an RBI single in the fifth gave Columbia a two-run advantage.

Miller’s 2.92 ERA is the only average under four on Harvard’s pitching staff.

—Staff writer Bryan Hu can be reached at bryan.hu@thecrimson.com.