Milt Holt was off to the races Saturday in the second game of a twin bill with Dartmouth, while captain Mike O'Malley had to be wondering what he has to do to win a ballgame. Both Harvard pitchers hurled five-hitters at the boys from Hanover, but Holt came away with a 2-0 victory in the nightcap while O'Malley was saddled with another loss, his third in as many starts, 3-1 to the Green.
Holt had the fans out of the ball park in time to catch the Derby on T.V., as he breezed through seven innings striking out seven and making the rest of the lineup pop up into the stiff wind. The contest took a mere hour and a half to complete, as Harvard didn't spend much time at the plate either.
The Crimson, who are 18-8 overall and 5-4 in the Eastern League, picked up only five hits off Dartmouth starter Kevin Kelley, three of which belonged to first baseman Leigh Hogan. The speedy Hogan also vaulted into the Eastern League lead of stolen bases (7) as he pilfered three in the nightcap.
Hogan a Hero
Ed Durso scored the only run Holt needed to work with in the first inning as he scampered home on Leon Goetz's sacrifice fly to right. Hogan drove in the second run, which was unearned, with a single in the sixth.
Holt had the Green baffled throughout, as his control was nearly perfect. The lefthanded pineapple never faced more than four men an inning as he did not give up a single walk. Dartmouth scattered its five hits in five different innings, and never got a man past first base.
The Green, however, capitalized on its few hits in the first game. O'Malley got off to a slow start as he walked two and gave up three "seeing eye" singles that found their way through the infield in the first inning. Mark Ditmar, the Eastern League's leading hitter, led off with a hit, followed by a pair of walks sandwiched around a strike out, to load up the bases.
Football hero Tom Snickenberger's grounder found its way into the outfield to drive in the first run. Winning pitcher Jim Beattie, who not only hit for himself in the first game, but was the designated hitter in the second, singled in the second run.
With Jim Thomas still injured, coach Loyal Park played Larry Barbiaux at the hot corner. Barbiaux was added to the roster along with Barry Cronin shortly after the Thomas injury. Barbiaux, a senior, played as a sophomore, and for the first month of last season at second base before quitting the club.
Fran Cronin played third against Northeastern last Wednesday, after seeing duty in both left and right field. "I didn't think it was fair to Franny, however, to keep moving him around," Park said. So he started Barbiaux.
Life on the Base-Paths
And as Park is fond of saying, you put a new guy in there and the first ball will be hit right at him. So it went with Barbiaux, whose first opportunity of the game resulted in a two base error on the throw to first. Tim McDonough, who was given a life on the base-paths because of the error, scored Dartmouth's third on Ditmar's second single of the game.
O'Malley allowed only one more hit the rest of the way, but the Crimson bats remained silent. The sole Crimson marker came in the first as Hogan doubled and scored on Joe Mackey's base hit. O'Malley was thus handed his third loss in a row. His first was to Yale's Gallagher in that whacky no-hitter, and the second in a close one to Cornell.
One of Those Things
"He's pitched three good ball games and lost," Park said yesterday. "It's one of those things. Some springs the ball falls in there, and other springs it doesn't. The Red Sox are having the same problems. But we could turn around and win five straight league games and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."
Read more in Sports
Steelers Nip Skins