Four good arms can beat one great arm.

Not every time, but often enough.

At least that's what the Harvard baseball team is hoping. Although the stud pitchers--Columbia's Kurt Lundgren, Cornell's Greg Myers. Navy's Jim McMurtry--toil else-where in the Eastern League, no squad has a staff as deep, from top to bottom, as Alex Nahigian's Crimson. And with the revamped EIBL schedule calling for back-to-back, weekend double-headers, every team will have to unearth a fourth starter and third reliever every Sunday.

Those sixth and seventh pitchers could be the keys to a successful season for more than one Eastern League club.

In addition to the 10-team EIBL, which includes the Ivies plus Army and Navy, the Crimson will again be competing in the Greater Boston League this season, with games scheduled against MIT, Northeastern, Brandeis. Boston College and Tufts. Last year's disappointing 17-14 overall record, which included a 6-7 EIBL mark (fifth-place tie) featured a GBL championship, and this season's entry is favored to repeat, with a challenge from Pete Varney's Brandeis squad and the scrappy Tufts Jumbos.

Add independent outings against UMass. UConn. Holy Cross and Rhode Island, and the recently completed Florida trip, and Harvard will play a total of 41 games this season not counting any playoff action--the most in recent memory.

Here is a capsule rundown on the squad:

PITCHING: Last year's team earned run average ballooned from one of the EIBL's best in '80 to a miserable 5.01, with control problems and erratic fielding at the heart of the problem. That trend will obviously have to be reversed if Harvard is to contend.

The Big Four from last season--juniors Bill Larson (5-2, 4.90). Billy Doyle (4-1, 6.18), and Greg Brown (3-3, 3.83), and senior Jim Curtin (2-2, 3.99) are all back--along with bullpen specialists Mike Smerczynski (3-2, 5.61) and John Sorich (0-0, 2.98).

Brown, the giant-sized righthander who tossed both of Harvard's shutouts last season, including a 4-0 no-hitter against Penn, was the squad's most consistent starter a year ago and has the potential to become one of the league's stronger hurlers.

Doyle, whose 32 walks pace a staff that issued 158 passes in 255 innings, and Larson, who looked brilliant in his early outings a year ago but was hit hard later one, are both being counted on to return to their 1980 form, when they helped the team to within one game of the College World Series.

The two can obviously pitch well: Doyle racked six impressive wins pitching for Yarmouth-Dennis in Cape Cod this summer and has looked good so far this spring, while Larson, a varsity hockey player, did not make the trip south but threw exceptionally well in a simulated game at Briggs Cage yesterday. He has won more games over the past two years than any other Crimson pitcher.

Just One Southpaw

The fourth starter, and only lefthander of the quartet, is Jim Curtin. The Burlington native didn't finish any of his seven starts last season and walked twice as many batters as he struck out, but he has a live arm and can be as effective as anyone on the team when he throws strikes.

With Smerczynski, a fastballer, and Sorich, a knuckle-curve artist, expected to man the bullpen at least in the early going, the spot starters will come from a group of three freshmen. Jeff Musselman. Charlie Marchese and Cecil Cox, who beat out returnees Brad Zlotnick and Dave Wanger for places on the Florida trip.