Slumping Crimson Nine Loses to Boston College

No earned runs. Ten strikeouts. Six hits given up, none after the fifth inning. These are usually the credentials of a winning pitcher, but yesterday against Boston College, Harvard's Don Driscoll wasn't so lucky.

One big inning, a four-run fourth, was all B.C. needed to notch a 4-3 win over the slumping Crimson, which has now lost three of its last four. The loss, Harvard's first defeat in the Greater Boston League since 1972, dropped the Crimson's season record to 16-6, 4-1 in the GBL.

Driscoll had minor control problems through the first few innings, but it was only in the fourth that he ran into any real trouble. Two B.C. home runs made Driscoll pay for his momentary wildness.

B.C.'s Mike Reynolds started the uprising with a walk. That was followed by a groundball to first baseman Leigh Hogan, whose peg to second went astray, leaving two on and no outs.

Two popouts later, it appeared that the error might not be a costly one, as Driscoll seemed to be pitching himself out of the jam.

Two Swats in a Row

Al Bassignani, B.C.'s big cleanup hitter, then stepped up and clouted one of the Crimson righty's offerings over the left field fence, and the Eagles were on top, 3-0. Freshman Tom Songin was next, and he clouted a fat Driscoll curve out of sight, some 390 feet away.

Staked to a 4-0 lead, B.C.'s Ron Luongo set about the task of holding off the scrappy Crimson hitters. Ed Durso broke the ice in the bottom of the third for Harvard, bringing home the first marker on a well executed double steal.

Harvard continued its comeback in the bottom of the seventh, as John Friar scored on Ric LaCivita's double. A strikeout and a popup, however, left LaCivita stranded on second as Luongo squashed the rally.

The Crimson inched a little closer in the eighth, as back-to-back singles by Hogan and Joe Mackey put runners on first and third, and Dave St. Pierre delivered a sacrifice fly.

Luongo again stopped the rally, and then set the Crimson down in order to wrap it up for the Eagles.