At the beginning of the month, the Harvard baseball team squeaked by Boston College at Soldiers Field, 3-2, when Crimson right fielder Chris McAndrews walked with the bases loaded.

The Eagles recorded only four hits in that game, all singles.

Yesterday, the two teams squared off again--this time at Boston College's Shea Field in a make-up of Wednesday's rain out.

And this time around, the Eagle batters knocked five hits out of the ballpark, and notched five more that didn't soar over Shea's short fences.

The result was an 8-4 B.C. win in a slugfest which left the Crimson batsmen at 10-7 overall, and 6-1 in the Greater Boston League.

But the record Harvard is most concerned with right now is 4-4.

That's the batsmen's record in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League. The problem is that Navy, which swept the batsmen last weekend, 2-1 and 11-1, is 13-3 in the league.

A Midshipman sweep of its final double-header at Penn this weekend would knock Harvard out of pennant contention. And even if Navy did drop a game, the Crimson would have to win 10 in a row (starting with this weekend's double-headers at Army and Columbia) to gain a tie and force a one-game playoff.

But there's some good news: 5-3.

That was the Crimson's EIBL record last year about this time. Meanwhile, the Princeton Tigers had finished their league season with a stunning 15-3 mark, meaning that the batsmen had to win 10 league contests in a row.

Sound familiar?

Well, last year, the batsmen did the incredible, rampaging through 10 contests in a row before falling to the Tigers in the playoff game.

Can the Crimson pull a repeat miracle out of the bag? "We have to have some help from Penn," Crimson Captain Bobby Kay says. "But there's no question in my mind that we're capable of winning 10 in a row."

By Sunday, the batsmen will know if they have a chance for another fantastic finish.

Yesterday against B.C., however, the squad fell victim to the long ball.