Just let the sun shine and, suddenly, Harvard has a damn good baseball team. Yesterday, on a perfect day for baseball, the Crimson breezed to a surprisingly easy 4-1 victory over a highly-touted Cornell nine at Splinter Stadium.

Sophomore pitching phenom Ray Peters hurled another solid game, whiffing 13 for a season-high in the strikeout department. But the real surprise was that he got his batting support from the bottom of the order.

Two Hits Apiece

Two hits each by Joe O'Donnell and Dick Manchester, the seventh and eighth men in the lineup, spelled the difference in the score.

After Cornell's Ivan (The Terrible) Tylawsky had struck out three of Harvard's four batters in the first inning -- spaced around a single by third baseman Bob Cunningham -- the Crimson bats exploded in the second.

After Phil Hall grounded out, Pete Kare-geannes started things going with a ground shot up the middle, but was caught stealing seconds later.

Then, with two outs O'Donnell rapped a line drive just out of the Cornell short-sop's reach. Manchester singled, O'Donnell holding at second base.

Peters kept the inning alive by hitting a slow grounder to short that Cornell's Chris Ritter had trouble throwing to first, and suddenly Harvard had the bases loaded.

They weren't loaded for long, however, as Phil Smith, the Crimson leadoff hitter, drilled a base hit up the middle scoring O'Donnell and Manchester with what turned out to be the winning allies.

Meanwhile Peters was breezing along, limiting the Big Red batsmen to two hits while fanning seven in the first four innings.

In the bottom of the fourth, Cornell's Tylawsky got O'Donnell on a swinging third strike, but the Big Red catcher couldn't hold onto the ball, and the Crimson captain legged it out to first.

Singles

Singles by Manchester and Peters drove O'Donnell across the plate with the third Harvard run of the afternoon.

Harvard picked up another tally in the sixth -- again scored by O'Donnell, after he had belted a double up the alley in right-center.

The visitors got on the scoreboard in the seventh when their number nine hitter, Jim Scullen, homered along the left field line, spoiling Peter's shutout bid. Harvard   ab  r  h Smith  4  0  2 C'n'gh'm  4  0  1 H't'st'n  4  0  1 Lord  4  0  0 Hall  4  0  0 K'r'g's  4  0  1 O'Donnell  3  3  2 Manchester  3  1  2 Peters  3  0  1 Scullen  4  1  1 Totals  3  4  10 Cornell   ab  r  h Riff  5  0  1 Walker  4  0  1 Ritter  2  0  0 Purcell  4  0  1 Verdi  4  0  2 Tylawsky  4  0  0 Newton  2  0  0 Kr'ch'na  2  0  0 Cott  4  0  2 Totals  34  1  8