NEW HAVEN, Conn.--On a cold afternoon, the Harvard baseball team ran into a hot pitcher.

Yale sophomore Ron Darling limited the Crimson to four hits while striking out ten as the Elis took advantage of some sloppy Harvard fielding, and blanked the Crimson, 9-0, in 35-degree weather here yesterday.

Darling entered the game with a 7-2 record and the lowest earned run average in the Eastern League. He left it, nine innings later, with an even lower ERA and well-earned respect from the Crimson hitters.

"He threw the ball hard, but that was the least of it," first baseman Mark Bingham said after the game. "He's the best I've seen this year."

Only designated hitter Eddie Farrell had any success against the lanky righthander. Farrell, wielding a productive bat for the third straight game, knocked out a trio of singles, but only advanced past first base once.

After singling with two outs in the seventh, he trotted down to second when Bobby Kelley drew a walk, and moved on to third when Billy Blood drew another.

But Darling extinguished the threat--the lone Crimson rally of the day--by retiring Danny Bowles on an easy roller to short, preserving his shutout.

When he's not at work on the mound, Darling moonlights as a .400 hitter. Yesterday, the sophomore aided his own cause with three hits, knocking in three runs, including the game-winner.

That came in the bottom of the sixth inning with the contest scoreless. With runners on first and second, Yale's Dan Costello singled to left, but Eli coach Ron Krause held his runner on third to load the bases.

The bases unloaded moments later when Darling rifled a Ron Stewart pitch into left, to give Yale a 2-0 lead which would have sufficed.

Just to make sure, the home team added three runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and three in the eighth. Harvard gave them some help with somewhat erratic fielding (the Crimson committed three, four or five errors, depending on whom you believe) as it watched its Eastern League record fall to 7-2.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard travels to Providence this afternoon to face Brown in a crucial twinbill... Coach Alex Nahigian will throw Bill Larson (3-3) and Rob Alevizos (2-0) in an effort to sweep the mediocre Bruins... For Alevizos, the contest will be his first start of the season... Farrell's three hits in his first three at-bats made it six consecutive hits before Darling retired him on a grounder in the ninth... Brad Bauer had the Crimson's other hit, a single in the eighth.