Bats Pummel Big Red Pitchers

Four games into the Ivy League season, the Harvard baseball team looks unbeatable.

On the back end of a weekend road double feature against Gehrig heavyweights Princeton and Cornell, the Crimson (8-9-1, 4-0 Ivy) swept the defending division champion Big Red (5-12, 1-3) on its own turf. And it did so in dominant fashion, scoring 26 runs and allowing only nine.

No player embodied the experience better than Lance Salsgiver, who has added plate patience to his already well-rounded offensive arsenal.

The senior from Davison, Mich. reached base nine times in ten plate appearances, drawing five walks and smashing four hits, including his first home run of the season. He scored seven times during the day.

“I think honestly, a lot of it’s pitch selection,” said Salsgiver, who raised his average to a blistering .393 during the year. His on-base percentage ballooned to .480. “You wait for your good fastball, stay back, get good pitches, and hit them.”

Sophomores Matt Vance and Steffan Wilson joined the hit parade, and senior Josh Klimkiewicz added eight RBI in the twin efforts.

Not until April 15 will Harvard face a league opponent on the road again. The Crimson will battle Patriot League foe Holy Cross (9-7-1) in Worcester, Mass. on Wednesday.

HARVARD 12, CORNELL 6

For the first time in three games, a Harvard opponent managed to keep pace with the Crimson’s white-hot bats.

Wilson delivered the crowning blow in the seventh, overwhelming the Big Red and pitcher Jim Hyland with a three-run blast. The home run put Harvard up for good and concluded the team’s day-long, two-game offensive romp.

“I knew the team was looking for me to put the game out of reach,” Wilson said.

Once again, the Harvard offense asserted itself early, pouring a four-run first on the defending Gehrig division champs.

Once again, a stubborn Crimson top of the order willed its way on base, vexing the Cornell pitching staff with a potent combination of patience and slugging.

This time, the Big Red fought back.

Cornell scored four runs in the third and fourth innings, touching up Harvard senior starter Matt Brunnig and making a 5-4 game of it. The Big Red once again answered the Crimson in the sixth, matching two Harvard runs with a pair of its own.

In the top of the seventh, Wilson stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and a 7-6 edge.

“It was at a time of the game when they had all the momentum,” said captain Morgan Brown, who watched from second base as Wilson went deep. “With one swing of the bat, it was ours again.”

Despite yielding two runs in 1 2/3 innings, Harvard junior reliever Jason Brown emerged with the win. Continuing his recent run of hot pitching, sophomore Brad Unger pitched 3 1/3 perfect innings, putting the Cornell bats on ice.

HARVARD 14, CORNELL 3

Riding the adrenaline of a doubleheader sweep at league heavyweight Princeton on Saturday, the Harvard Crimson bats hung an ugly line on the Cornell pitching staff in Sunday’s opener: seven innings, 13 hits, nine walks, and 14 runs, ten earned.

That was all Harvard needed to win—but for good measure, senior starter Javi Castellanos rebounded from a season-long slump with the most impressive start, and second win, of his Crimson career.

He allowed three earned runs and only three hits in six innings, flummoxing the Big Red lineup with a hard, low-90s fastball and tricky slider.

“He pitched like a senior should pitch,” Brown said. “When he hit a rough patch, he just blew right through it.”

The Harvard batting order took care of its end, ripping two home runs—Vance’s first and Salsgiver’s second of the year.

Klimkiewicz added five RBIs in the DH role, and now boasts 22 during the season.

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.