How can a team that lost an Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League batting champion, the best righthanded pitcher in the EIBL and a hard-hitting outfielder who kept putting the ball over the fence at the most convenient times, expect, or even hope, to repeat last year's string of victories leading to an Eastern crown and a regional title? But that is exactly what coach Loyal Park's 1974 Harvard baseball teams expects to do.

Last spring, the Crimson batmen charged to a 34-3 regular season record behind the hitting of Kevin Hampe, the pitching of Roz Brayton and the slugging of Hal Smith. This year, Park has to fill these mighty large holes in the lineup to hope to duplicate the 1973 success story.

"Our biggest problem this year," Harvard pitching coach Bob Lincoln said, "is to find a number one stopper and a number four starter. We've got to find that one man we can count on to go out on any given day and win for us. And we have to find a fourth man in our starting rotation."

Big Feet

The "number one stopper" will be filling in the oversized shoes left by Roz Brayton, first team All-East two years in a row for the Crimson and now in the Boston Red Sox organization.

Prime candidates for that mythical position are lettermen Mike O'Malley, Don Driscoll and Milt Holt. O'Malley, All-GBL last year, sported a perfect 6-0 record with a brilliant .054 ERA, the third lowest in the nation.

Driscoll opened the '73 season with a sterling arm, but was injured mid-way through the season and only resumed work-outs during the week of the regional playoffs. A strong return to form by Driscoll could go a long way to improving the Crimson title chances.

Holt, the only southpaw among the three starters, turned in some fine performances especially towards the end of last spring.

Very important in Harvard considerations is ace reliever Norm Walsh. A righthander, Walsh was called upon again and again in the 1973 title stretch to secure vital wins for the Crimson.

Lincoln will have to decide among a host of possibles to fill in the rest of the pitching staff. Terry Schlimbaum, a lefty, Steve Kitchen, a righthander, Frank LeBlanc, another righthander, Jim Harold and Tom Pura, two lefties, are among the leading candidates for positions.

Also in contention are southpaws Keith Butler and sophomore Bob Larsen along with righthander Nils Nilson, a junior.

Depth and Consistency

"Let's face it," Park said, "in this league it is pitching that wins or loses games for you. We are concerned with the depth of our pitching and its consistency."

"Our problems right now are trying to gain this pitching depth," Park said, "and to determine the number one catcher."

"Talking about pitching, we won those last three titles on the pitching," Park said. "We had someone like Brayton we could call on for the big games. The season before that, we lost by one game, and you guessed it, it was the pitching that did us in."