Baseball Renews Ivy Dynasty, Makes NCAAs

HOUSTON—Harvard Coach Joe Walsh was addressing the media in a press conference last Saturday on the Rice University campus, trying to explain the apparently inexcusable letdown the Harvard baseball team suffered when it failed to stun two of the better teams in the nation, Rice and Washington, in the opening round of the NCAA Regionals.

“The disappointing thing is that we had a lot of good seniors on this club,” Walsh said. “I really feel for those guys.”

Such are the minor tragedies that can accompany a superbly successful season. By regaining the Ivy League title this season after a two-year drought, the Crimson once again reached the point where a trip to NCAAs could be considered ultimately unsatisfying.

Walsh’s melancholy makes sense in light of the incredible road Harvard (20-26, 16-7 Ivy) took in its return to greatness. With the miraculous run the Crimson staged in the last few weeks of its season, Harvard deserved broader recognition than the several dozen fans that witnessed its victory in the Ivy League Championship series against Princeton could provide.

As it turned out, the Ancient Eight victory would have to be its own reward.

For a team that hit only .261 on the season, pitching was vital. The biggest boost to the Crimson’s title aspirations happened last summer, when the team learned that hurler Ben Crockett, a Boston Red Sox draftee in last June’s Major League Baseball draft, would return to captain the team in his senior season.

Crockett opened the season with a tough loss at nationally ranked Rice but would eventually carry the team back to Houston on his back, routinely dominating with 140-pitch efforts in crucial Ivy League games.

Crockett anchored a staff that included fellow seniors Justin Nyweide and Chaney Sheffield—who gradually settled in as the No. 4 starter this year—along with sophomore Marc Hordon. Hordon found himself injured at several points this season but was superb when healthy, leading the team with a 2.78 ERA and batting .338 on a run-starved team.

Still, the ace was Crockett, who along with his classmates represented the last remnants of the Harvard dynasty of the late 1990s.

The 1999 team was the last in a string of three Ivy League champions and four Red Rolfe Division winners. That was the club that introduced to O’Donnell Field shortstop Mark Mager—who finished the season tied atop Harvard’s career hit list with 208—as well as second baseman Faiz Shakir, third baseman Nick Carter and first baseman Josh San Salvador. By the end of this season, each member of this all-senior infield left an indelible mark on the championship race, as did most of the seniors.

Sophomore first baseman, designated hitter and occasional pitcher Trey Hendricks blossomed into a force to be reckoned with in the cleanup spot, leading the team in batting (.372), RBI (29) and home runs (6) en route to being selected to the All-Ivy First Team.

Freshman catcher Schuyler Mann nicely filled the void left by Brian Lentz on both sides of the plate, hitting with aplomb while frequently punishing would-be base stealers.

But outside of Hendricks, Mann and Mager, the Harvard lineup had difficulty stringing hits together as the low run production of the Crimson’s early season schedule bled into the heart of the season. On several occasions, Harvard found itself a timely hit short of a win.

Several early bullpen collapses exacerbated the lack of hits at key points. Still, pitching carried the Crimson to a one-game lead over Brown headed into a critical four-game set with the Bears late in the season.

The Crimson lost two of the first three games and needed to win the fourth in order to control its own destiny heading into the final weekend of the season. But the Bears jumped out to a big lead and, down 8-1 in the sixth inning, the Crimson’s future looked grim.

Then came The Comeback. Carter, senior outfielder Javy Lopez and San Salvador hit home runs that helped pull the Crimson within striking distance.

For Carter, the shot was one of only two on the year—the timeliest collegiate homer he had ever hit.

Lopez could say the same—after suffering a traumatic eye injury his freshman year, Lopez’ shot was his first ever in a Harvard uniform.

San Salvador’s home run was his first since returning from an ACL tear that sidelined him for a large chunk of the season. But it would not be his last—not by a long shot.

After the Crimson tied the game at 12-12, with Crockett doing his best Randy Johnson impersonation by coming in for two key outs in the top of the ninth, San Salvador hit a walk-off home run to left that ended an improbable comeback and put the Crimson in the driver’s seat.

Harvard could not fully capitalize on the miracle, splitting its final Ivy weekend with Dartmouth and forcing a one-game showdown with Brown for the Rolfe title. But the do-or-die scenario only meant that Crockett would get to work even more magic.

On three days’ rest, Crockett somehow pulled off another complete game masterpiece, flirting with the single-game strikeout mark (17) he had set earlier in the year. Still, the Crimson headed into the bottom of the ninth behind 1-0.

That set the stage for The Second Comeback, which, while less improbable than the first Brown collapse, was no less dramatic.

The Bears’ Jonathan Stern—who shared Ivy Pitcher of the Year honors with Crockett—had handcuffed the Crimson for most of the game. But with two outs and junior Nick Seminara on second, sophomore pinch-hitter Mickey Kropf connected on a drive to deep centerfield that tied the game and put the winning run on third base.

Shakir, who had won the Ivy League title with a cheap single against Princeton his freshman year, came full circle with another clutch hit, this one a bloop to left that propelled Harvard into the Ivy League championship game.

Facing the prospect of playing the Tigers without the fatigued Crockett and the injured Hordon, Shakir noted before the championship series that the Crimson needed “a lot of heroes.”

As it turned out, Harvard needed only two.

Nyweide, who had endured a particularly rough outing the previous weekend against Dartmouth, turned in a three-hit shutout in the opener. In the second game, Sheffield—who had been a JV player, a midweek pitcher, a member of the right field platoon and finally a weekend starter—could call himself the winning pitcher in the series clincher.

He allowed three hits in five innings before juniors Kenon Ronz and Barry Wahlberg closed things out for the Crimson. The lefty Ronz and righty closer Wahlberg had—along with senior Mike Dryden—gradually become one of the more reliable bullpens in the Ivy League.

And so the Ivy League Championship returned to Harvard. The seniors led the way back to the NCAAs, apparently creating an opportunity for Walsh to feel bad for them.

The 2002 Harvard baseball team: They were gritty and resourceful, they were champions and, in the end, they were disappointed. That may be the surest sign of just how far they came.

BASEBALL

RECORD 20-26 (16-7 Ivy, 1st place)

COACH Joe Walsh

CAPTAIN Ben Crockett

HIGHLIGHTS Two-out, ninth-inning rally lifts Crimson over Brown in do-or-die Red Rolfe playoff. Harvard sweeps Princeton for fourth Ivy championship in six years and NCAA tournament berth.