Baseball Gets Untracked, Unloads on Northeastern 6-1

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 comedic thriller North by Northwest, Cary Grant is pursued across the country after the becoming victim of mistaken identity. Yesterday afternoon, after a disastrous weekend at Yale, a Harvard baseball team in search of its offensive identity tried to avoid going South by Northeastern.

Harvard succeeded, but just like in a Hitchcock film, the suspense was there until the late stages.

The Crimson (15-15, 8-3 Ivy) defeated Northeastern yesterday, 6-1, in a game that was originally supposed to take place on Wednesday.

The win was far from secure until the bottom of the eighth, when sophomore shortstop Mark Mager's 2-RBI double keyed a four-run inning for Harvard.

Mager went 2-for-3, batting in three runs and scoring another, and the Crimson pitching combined to hold the Huskies (14-11) to one run on three hits.

Harvard left ten men on base and was unable to get much going offensively for most of the game, but still managed to rebound from an abysmal 1-2 weekend at Yale.

Two of Yale's wins had been shutouts, and for a while, a third scoreless outing seemed possible. Northeastern right-hander Ken Henry (2-3) kept the Crimson off the board for four innings.

"We didn't capitalize on all of our opportunities early on," Harvard Coach Joe Walsh said. "But we did a lot of other things right, got some hits late and came up with the win."

Sophomore right-hander Chaney Sheffield's second start of the year was a quality one for the Crimson. In his five innings of work, he allowed the Huskies' sole run on two hits and struck out three. Sheffield also picked off two base-runners at first, but he also walked four batters.

"I felt good out there," Sheffield said. "I was wild at points, but hey, maybe it helped because they didn't know what to expect."

For a while, the Crimson looked a bit lost at the plate as well. Harvard's hitters were unable to solve Henry, who entered the game with a 7.11 ERA in six appearances.

The Crimson seemed poised to break the shutout in the third when sophomore designated hitter Josh San Salvador, who was 3-for-4 on the day, hit a leadoff double. Mager successfully sacrificed San Salvador over to third base, but Henry fanned sophomore second baseman Faiz Shakir and Brian Lentz grounded out to second base to leave San Salvador stranded at third.

Meanwhile, the Huskies managed to put a run on the board when shortstop Omar Pena whacked a double into right field, plating left fielder Ben Beck from first. Harvard was down 1-0, and would remain behind until the fifth inning.

In the fifth, consecutive singles to left from San Salvador and tri-captain Jeff Bridich gave the Crimson two men on with nobody out. This set up the first of Mager's two doubles on the afternoon, which scored San Salvador and sent Bridich to third.

A bizarre sequence prevented the Crimson from doing further damage. After Shakir popped up to short, Lentz came to bat with runners on second and third. Midway through Henry's delivery, Bridich began to sprint for home. The pitch ended up hitting Lentz in the shoulder, loading the bases with one out but sending Bridich back to third. It appeared as if Bridich would have been safe had the pitch not hit Lentz.

"I was pretty surprised," Lentz said. "I thought he would have made it in."

Tri-captain Erik Binkowski eventually struck out, stranding all three Crimson runners.

Harvard stole another run in the sixth after Henry worked himself into a jam, opening the bottom half of the inning with consecutive walks to sophomore Nick Carter and junior Joe Llanes. Both walks were on four pitches.

With one out, Bridich singled to left field, bringing Carter home, and the Crimson had a 2-1 lead.

A four-run home eighth inning secured the win. Pena bobbled a Llanes line drive, allowing him to reach first to open the inning. Carmack got on base after a Henry offering hit his ankle, and San Salvador's single loaded the bases with no outs. After Bridich struck out, Llanes scored on a pitch that squirted through catcher Luke Carlin's mitt and ended up several yards behind him. Mager's second double brought two runs home, and Henry was done for the day.

At that point, Northeastern decided to hand the ball over to backup catcher Dan Connolly. The backstop made his first career appearance on the other side of the plate, and promptly gave up an RBI bloop single to Shakir. Lentz' sacrifice fly later in the inning accounted for the final margin.

Harvard got four solid innings out of its bullpen. Freshman Madhu Saty (2-0) pitched the bottom of the sixth and worked his way through the heart of the Northeastern order. Freshman Ryan Tsujikawa struggled with his control, but settled down to retire the Huskies in the seventh. Senior Mike Madden retired the side in the eighth, and Derek Lennon struck out two in the ninth and final inning.

Notes

Harvard's resident jack-of-all-positions, junior John Franey, playing first base, sustained an injury to his glove hand when Northeastern's Matt Keating stepped on his thumb. According to Franey, the injury is a mild sprain.

Continuing its bought with Mother Nature, rain threatens Harvard's four-game series with Brown, which is scheduled to begin today at noon. Harvard and Northeastern will meet again on Monday in the semifinal round of the Beanpot in Pawtucket, R.I.