Day Two: Harvard Offense Explodes

HANOVER, N.H.—As a baseball fan, you couldn’t have asked for a better scenario.

One game, played on the final Sunday of April under the clearest of blue skies, to decide the Ivy League Red Rolfe Division title. Two teams, bitter rivals, with the loser ending its season in disappointment and the winner advancing to the Ivy Championship Series.

And as a Harvard fan, you couldn’t have asked for a better result.

The Crimson (20-18-1, 14-6 Ivy) prevailed over Dartmouth (19-18, 13-7) in the do-or-die nightcap of yesterday’s doubleheader in Hanover, N.H., scoring the final 14 runs in a 23-9 win.

Harvard was pushed to the brink when the Big Green captured the opener, 4-0.

With these results, the Crimson secured its second straight Red Rolfe Division crown and moves on to host Princeton, Gehrig Division champs, in the Ivy Championship Series (ICS) next weekend.

“The whole league just beat each other up,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “It was the last one standing, and it turned [out] to be us.”

HARVARD 23, DARTMOUTH 9

What promised to be a nail-biting finish turned into a laugher as Harvard capitalized on a depleted Dartmouth bullpen and some shoddy infield defense to plate 14 runners over the final two innings and sap the drama out of the afternoon’s decisive second game.

After the resilient Big Green pulled even with the Crimson with a four-run rally in the seventh inning, Harvard summarily pushed five across in the eighth against weary relievers Kyle Zeis and Chris Lapointe.

Sophomore Matt Vance led off the frame with his third hit of the game, a triple launched deep into Red Rolfe Field’s cavernous center field. Taylor Meehan followed with a high chopper that just eluded the reach of the Dartmouth first baseman, and Josh Klimkiewicz—in the midst of a monster day at the plate—scored Meehan with a laser-beam double to right-center.

Senior Chris Mackey drove in two more with a double and captain Morgan Brown (four RBI) capped it off with a successful squeeze bunt to give the Crimson a 14-9 cushion.

“That’s the kind of team we’ve had most of the season,” Klimkiewicz said. “We play our best when we’re pushed up against the wall, it seems. I think a lot of other teams would crumble and throw the game away, but we came in the dugout and said ‘We’re going to score at least four runs this inning.”

Harvard continued the onslaught with nine more runs in a difficult-to-watch ninth inning that included two Big Green errors (bringing its total to eight for the game), a bases-loaded plunking, and a three-run homer off the bat of catcher Andrew Casey.

The barrage exposed Dartmouth’s lack of pitching depth and built a lead that, unlike the Crimson’s earlier edges, could not be erased.

Harvard enjoyed leads of 4-0, 7-2, and 9-5, but the pesky Big Green would not go away, shrinking the margins and finally tying the game in the seventh.

Starting pitcher Matt Brunnig began the seventh, but was chased without retiring a batter. Brad Unger stepped in but struggled, allowing two inherited runners and one of his own to score, and was bailed out only by a critical double play ball—the Crimson infield’s third crucial turn of the game. All told, Brunnig allowed eleven hits and eight runs (six earned) in his six-plus innings of work, striking out two and walking one. Although he did not have his sharpest stuff on the mound, Brunnig had his best-ever day at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored.

Leading off the fifth, the 6’7 Brunnig cranked a double off the wall in center field, approximately 400 feet away.

“I ended up hitting to offset the pitching,” Brunnig said. “It works out.”

The day’s true hitting star, though, was Klimkiewicz. The senior first baseman reached base all seven times he batted in the game, officially going 4-for-5 with two singles, a double, a home run—a towering solo drive in the sixth—four RBI, and five runs scored, and was hit by a pitch twice.

“This potentially could have been my last college game,” Klimkiewicz said. “The pitches looked like beach balls today; everything was looking huge.”

But there were plenty of offensive accolades to go around. Vance finished with four hits while Mackey had five RBI.

DARTMOUTH 4, HARVARD 0

Dartmouth hurler Jeff Wilkerson stymied Harvard in the opener, blanking the Crimson over the course of seven innings and forcing a temporary tie atop the standings. Wilkerson allowed eight hits and struck out six in his complete-game shutout, besting opponent Javier Castellanos and Harvard, 4-0.

The Crimson’s best chances to touch Wilkerson came as he tired down the stretch. In the sixth, the team loaded the bases on consecutive singles from Klimkiewicz, Brunnig, and Brown, but Meehan flied harmlessly to right to end the threat.

And in the seventh, Big Green left fielder Andrew Nacario made a running grab on Steffan Wilson’s liner with two on to strand Klimkiewicz in the on-deck circle as the potential tying run.

“If a guy comes out and he’s spotting up the ball on the corners and he’s not leaving it out over the plate, it’s tough,” Klimkiewicz said.

On the other side, centerfielder Will Bashelor, Dartmouth’s best hitter, was in the middle of the squad’s run-scoring innings and an eternal thorn in Castellanos’ side. He stroked an RBI triple in the third and came in to score on Damon Wright’s sacrifice fly. And his double, with help from Mackey’s bobble in left field, brought in another run to make it 3-0 in the fifth.

Castellanos allowed six hits and four walks in five and third innings, fanning only one. The loss sunk his record to 4-4 on the season.

—Staff writer Jonathan Lehman can be reached at jlehman@fas.harvard.edu.