Baseball Splits Weekend Tournament Games at Wake Forest to Begin Season

In a weekend of firsts, the Harvard baseball team faced a few new squads for the first time in program history at a tournament at Wake Forest, where losses to Richmond on Friday and Towson on Sunday bookended a Saturday sweep of Saint Peter’s and the Demon Deacons (9-3).

Sophomore third baseman John Fallon hit his first two career home runs on the way to six hits and five runs batted in on the weekend. Freshman first baseman Pat McColl, filling in for injured junior Matt Hink, started his career in style, recording six hits in 14 at-bats while driving in four runs.

“As a team we definitely showed a lot of potential,” said freshman center fielder Ben Skinner, who started all four games over the weekend. “I don’t think our record necessarily reflected how well we did…. We definitely have areas of our game to improve to get us to the next level, but this is a good group and we could definitely do something special.”

TOWSON 6, HARVARD 5

The Crimson (2-2) suffered a close defeat at the hands of the Tigers (2-7) on Sunday, with freshman Kevin Stone recording a four-plus inning loss in his debut outing. The Connecticut native allowed six runs—five earned—while striking out three.

A two-run single by McColl knotted things up at two in the bottom of the second before Fallon hit the next pitch down the left field line for a two-run double, handing Harvard a 4-2 lead after two frames.

Towson, however, recorded two runs in both the third and fifth innings to grab a one-run lead. While a combination of three Crimson pitchers combined for five scoreless innings in relief of Stone, Tigers’ long reliever Kyle Stricker blanked Harvard over six and two-thirds innings to shut the door.

“I think that’s a game that we definitely could and should have won,” Skinner said. “We came out a little flat, especially coming off a big win against Wake Forest. I don’t think the same energy and intensity was there.”

HARVARD 6, WAKE FOREST 3

The Crimson used a four-run second inning to breeze past ACC contenders Wake Forest (8-3) late in the game on Saturday, with junior Nick Gruener picking up the win thanks to six strong innings where he allowed three runs.

Gruener allowed two in the bottom of the first, but Harvard responded immediately in the top of the second, using three straight doubles from junior shortstop Drew Reid, freshman left fielder Trent Bryan, and Skinner to plate four and take a 4-2 lead.

“A lot of times in baseball, especially early on in a game, the other teams scores two run, a lot of teams could crumble right after that,” captain D.J. Link said. “But if you can capitalize quickly and rebound quickly like we did in the second inning, it’s huge. It was nice to see us react quickly and jump on them.”

The Demon Deacons pulled one back in the third but RBIs from senior second baseman Mitch Klug and McColl in the top of the seventh provided ample insurance for senior reliever Nick Scahill. Scahill fanned six of the ten batters he faced in three no-hit innings to record the save.

HARVARD 7, ST. PETER’S 1

The Crimson rolled past the Peacocks (1-6) behind seven strong innings from senior ace Sean Poppen, who struck out 10 batters in seven innings of one-run ball.

“He pitched great,” Link said. “First time out, he was hitting all his spots. The umpire was giving the outside corner a little bit, and he recognized it.”

Fallon got things started strong, driving a two-run home run over the left field wall with one out to spot Poppen a two-run lead. That’s all the Virginia native would need, as he allowed just five base runners all night.

Klug would add a home run of the solo variety in the bottom of the seventh to extend the lead to five before freshman catcher Devan Peterson drove in the first run of his Harvard career with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

RICHMOND 9, HARVARD 2

The Crimson opened its season with a loss against the Spiders resulting from a seven-run inning for the Atlantic 10 side. Sophomore Ian Miller was credited with the loss; after going six innings and allowing just a single run, he was tagged for four more in the seventh before he could record the first out.

“We came out pretty strong, and I think that even though we lost that game, we pretty much had one bad inning,” Link said. “Other than that, we actually played a pretty solid game.”

A Reid double opened the scoring in the fourth before Richmond tied things at one in the bottom of the fifth. The floodgates opened in the seventh, however, and Fallon’s first career home run in the top of the eighth was cancelled out promptly by a Doug Kraeger solo shot in the bottom of that same inning.

Harvard recorded 10 hits but could only score two, leaving five runners stranded in scoring position.

“I think we definitely didn’t capitalize enough on our scoring positions,” Skinner said. “I felt that we hit a lot of hard balls that weren’t finding holes and were hit straight at people. That happens in baseball, but hopefully they’ll start falling.”

—Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.