SEASON RECAP: Nature, Bears Slash Harvard’s Rolfe Repeat Chances

Pitching and defense win championships. That’s the mantra with which Joe Walsh, coach of the Harvard baseball team, entered this season.

And even after a second-place finish in the Ivy League’s Red Rolfe Division behind conference champion Brown’s offensive juggernaut, he’s sticking to it.

“I still go back to those things being the key to baseball, and not offensive explosion,” Walsh said. “I’m always going to feel deep down that that’s what’s going to win us a championship.”

And yes, the pitching was solid. Junior Shawn Haviland didn’t have the dominance of his 2006 Ivy Pitcher of the Year campaign, but he still held opposing hitters to a .229 average and turned in several gritty outings on just three days’ rest down the stretch. Freshmen starters Max Perlman and Eric Eadington emerged as stars of the future in nailing down the second and third spots in Walsh’s rotation. Perlman nearly stole Haviland’s Pitcher of the Year crown for himself, as he led the team in wins and ERA, picking up a spot on the All-Ivy Second Team.

Sure, the defense was there. Junior Jeff Stoeckel, replacing sure-handed shortstop Morgan Brown ’06, committed just four errors in 147 opportunities and garnered a league honorable mention. The defense up the middle was solid all season, with Stoeckel and captain second baseman Brendan Byrne turning many a pretty double play and senior catcher Andrew Casey—who joined batterymate Perlman on the league’s second team—throwing out would-be baserunners at a dependable clip.

After losing two big bats in Josh Klimkiewicz ’06 and Lance Salsgiver ’06 to graduation, the Crimson knew that it would struggle to score runs. But it didn’t think that a few holes in the lineup would cost it its Rolfe Divison title and the chance to play in May.

“We just ran into a Brown team that was based around what they could do with the bat,” Casey said. “But we think that we could play them pretty even over any type of series.”

“Our offense was weaker [than last season], and you could tell,” junior outfielder Matt Vance added. “We had spots open up that no one really filled. Some key guys had off seasons or started off slow, which didn’t help us, and the younger guys didn’t step up in the lineup as much as we needed.”

Vance led the offensive charge for Harvard with a monster season, one of four players unanimously voted to the All-Ivy League First Team. Called upon to drive in runs even from the leadoff spot, Vance batted a gaudy .429 in league play and .447 with runners in scoring position.

But even with Vance leading the way and Casey and juniors Tom Stack-Babich and Matt Kramer emerging as pleasant surprises offensively, the Crimson couldn’t keep up with Brown’s breakneck pace at the plate.

“We didn’t have a lot of power, we weren’t having explosions, we weren’t putting teams away,” Walsh said. “I thought we had enough pitching to get the job done, but we just weren’t putting enough guys on base.”

March snows and April showers certainly didn’t help Harvard sustain any kind of offensive rhythm. The team missed a weekend of games during its strenuous nonconference schedule in Florida, then had several matchups in April postponed or cancelled, including its always anticipated Beanpot game at Fenway Park.

“The team was really starting to hit its stride in those first two games with Yale before that rainout,” Casey said. “We beat them pretty good in both games, and we thought that could be a turning point.”

But then the Crimson dropped a twice-postponed opening-round Beanpot game to Boston College—its second loss to the Eagles in a week—to begin a stretch of .500 ball that lasted for the rest of the season. After splitting four games at Brown in the penultimate Ivy weekend, Harvard had to take all four from perennial contender Dartmouth and hope that Yale could sweep the Bears.

Neither deal worked out, and as the sun finally came out in May, the Crimson found itself inside yet again—this time, watching playoff baseball unfold without it.

“It’s not just about being able to say that you’re the Ivy League champion—it’s the ability to extend your season one month more,” Walsh said. “I’m dying right now. The early end of the season, it just crushes you.”

“At Harvard, we’re expected to win the championship every year,” Vance added. “That’s what we set out to do at the beginning of each year. If we don’t win, it’s a big disappointment.”

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.