The Crimson batmen have the golden opportunity to claim two league championships this week but will have to navigate through a rough schedule to do it.
Harvard can clinch both the Greater Boston League title and the Eastern League crown with a sweep of this week's games that feature two formidable opponents in Northeastern today and Cornell Friday and a consistent one in Army on Saturday.
The Huskies, currently on a tear of ten straight victories, go into today's game with a 10-4-1 record overall and a 6-0 mark in the GBL.
The Northeastern squad features a heavy hitting barrage (the team batting average is a whopping .314) and pitching that is not overpowering, but is good and consistent. Centerfielder Tom Rezzuti, a second string All-American last year, leads the team with a batting average well over the .400 mark. Shortstop Mike Archambault is also pounding out hits at a rate of better than 4 in 10 at bats.
Handling the pitching duties for the Huskies today will be either George Greewich with a 2-0 GBL record and a respectable 2.67 ERA or Ed Minishak, last year's ace who has not seen action yet this spring because of a sore arm.
Minishak will possibly make his first appearance of the spring and is rumored to be near last year's form when he went 23 innings allowing only one earned run. Should he be in top shape, he could cause problems for the Crimson batmen.
The Harvard nine is in good shape for the final drive except for a few weaknesses in the pitching staff that might hurt the Crimson.
Pitching Changes
"It's a tough position to be in right now with both Driscoll and Holt out," coach Loyal Park said yesterday. "We had to redo our pitching rotation and hope these breaks don't hurt us."
Norm Walsh is being called out of the bullpen into starting action against the Huskies. He has pitched the Crimson out of many tough situations with some key relief work this spring.
The last time the two teams met was in the district one NCAA playoffs last May. The Crimson took that contest by a 18-6 margin. If the Harvard batmen take today's game, it will be the third consecutive GBI title for the Crimson.
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