The Harvard baseball team's first home inning of the year started when Tony DiCesare faced Providence pitcher Steve Taylor.
"I was a little nervous after those first two curves," DiCesare remembered later. "Bing, bang, two strikes."
But with the count full, Taylor tossed a fastball, and the bang came from DiCesare's bat. Three hundred and eighty feet later, the ball landed over the right-field fence.
Four Crimson home runs later, the batsmen had recorded their fourth straight victory, an 11-1 romp over the Friars. Three games shy of the mid-season point, Harvard is 10-4, Providence dropped to 8-11-1.
The last time Harvard had more than one homer in a game was the season-opener against Air Force, when the Crimson belted five takers en route to a 24-1 rout.
Senior left fielder Jay McNamara hit a two-run line drive just left of the foul pole, doubled and singled "I haven't had a better day at Harvard," said McNamara, who has platooned in left field since Scott Vierra moved to third base.
Vierra hasn't had many better days either, as he included a seventhinning solo shot to right in his three-for-four with a walk performance. Vierra got two hits off Taylor, a former Barringon (R.I.) High School teammate.
Slump-Busters
Junior Bob Kay and sophomore Jim DePalo were both hitless in three attempts when they led off the eighth inning. The brightened their days with back-to-back homes.
Staff ace Charlie Marchese (3-0) had yielded just three hits in 6 2/3 innings when three straight Frier singles broke Harvard's string at 20 shutout innings. Sophomore lefthander Jim Chenevey pitched the seventh and eighth innings, striking out four.
THE NOTEBOOKE: DiCesare hit just 270 while batting fifth or sixth in the first 10 sames this year. Since then he been leading off and betting 353....McNamara didn't get a chance to start last year, and he got just 19 at-bets. "I feel good to be in there from the beginning of the game," the senior from Arlington said. "I know the couch has confidence in me." His hitting? "I just released and reached to the ball," he said, adding that Assistant Coach Barry Sullivan had helped improve his performance at the plate...McNamara has played in left against righthanded pitchers, white freshman Frank Caprio has gotten the nod against lefties. Both have his well, with Caprio eight for 18 and McNamara six for 15.
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