Early Deficit Dooms Baseball

In a crosstown meeting with Boston College, the Harvard baseball team fell behind early and, despite mounting a rally, could never catch up.

The Crimson lost, 8-6, to the Eagles on a windy Wednesday afternoon in Chestnut Hill. All of BC’s offense came in three consecutive innings, including a five-run bottom of the third, which propelled them to a six-run lead.

Harvard (4-19) held the Eagles (5-23) scoreless for the rest of the game and posted the next four tallies, one of which came on a home run from sophomore outfielder Brandon Kregel. But the late offense would not be enough to overcome the early deficit.

“In the middle innings we looked at the scoreboard and were like, ‘There’s no reason we can’t come back,’” senior infielder Rob Wineski said. “We got some guys on base, and all of a sudden it’s 8-6, and we had a shot…. At the end of the day we just didn’t capitalize at the very end, but we felt like we could come back the entire time.”

The Crimson struggled to get out of the gates, as the Eagles scored seven runs off Harvard junior starter Peter Kaplan. But once the Harvard pitchers settled down, the offense followed in turn, ultimately posting eight hits, only one fewer than the BC total.

The six runs tied the most the Crimson has scored all year.

It looked as if the Eagles would put a crooked number on the board early, as an error, a walk, and a single loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first.

But Kaplan immediately buckled down, striking out the next two BC hitters, and ended the threat by forcing a fly-out to right field.

Harvard appeared to have the momentum in the top of the next frame when it rallied to put men on second and third with one out.

But this time, the Eagles clamped down on defense, as starter Matt Alvarez forced the next two Crimson batters to pop out in the infield.

After BC struck first in the bottom of the second with a pair of runs, Harvard bounced back in the next half inning to tie the game up. Following a double from junior outfielder Jeff Hajdin and a walk from sophomore infielder Mike Martin, two wild pitches brought in one run, and a sacrifice fly from Kregel plated Martin.

But the score would not remain even for long, as BC responded with force in the home half of the third, putting up five runs to seize control of the game.

All nine Eagles hitters went to bat in the inning, and the scoring started with a triple from junior Jimmy Dowdell that scored two. After a double, a walk, and an out, junior John Hennessy smacked another double with two outs that brought in the final two tallies of the inning.

It looked as if the Eagles might keep pouring it on in the fourth, but senior pitcher Jordan Haviland forced a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded to limit the damage to one.

With the score 8-2 in favor of the Eagles, Harvard attempted to chip away at the lead over the course of the next two innings.

A double from freshman infielder Mitch Klug resulted in a run in the top of the fifth, and the Crimson put up its second two-spot of the game one inning later. An RBI knock from freshman catcher Dj Link plated one run, and a bases-loaded single from Martin added another.

But Harvard could do no further damage in the inning, as Kregel and sophomore infielder Tanner Anderson were both retired with the bases full.

“We gave away some big hits to their team, and when we had the bases loaded we didn’t execute,” Kregel said. “I popped the ball up when we had the bases loaded, so I didn’t do my job personally when I could’ve gotten a hit and knocked some people in.”

After the fourth inning, Crimson relievers held BC scoreless for the remainder of the game. Haviland, junior Baron Davis, and sophomore Matt Timoney combined to allow only one run on three hits in 5.2 innings.

Harvard’s last chance to mount a comeback fell short in the top of the ninth. Kregel blasted a solo homer, the team’s first of the year, over the left field fence to bring the Crimson within two.

But with two men on and two outs, BC sophomore closer Nick Poore forced Wineski, who represented the go-ahead run, to fly out to center to end the nonconference matchup.

“We were trying to carry our momentum from our win against Penn, and I think every game you take as important as the next one in the schedule,” Wineski said. “Obviously you have to look for improvement, but there were a lot of positive things we saw, and I think it’s really going to help us going into this important weekend.”

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu.