The Harvard baseball team came up aces yesterday afternoon at Soldiers Field, drubbing MIT, 21-1, in the Crimson's season finale.
Senior starter Jim Chenevey (1-1, with 33 strikeouts in 18-2/3 innings) closed out his Harvard career in style, fanning 11 of 16 batters he faced and yielding just one hit in four innings of work against the Engineers (13-9-1).
Harvard finished the season at 19-7 overall and 4-2 in the Greater Boston League.
Chenevey wasn't the only senior to shine, as third baseman Dave Jamieson knocked in four runs with two hits including a bases-loaded double in the first inning. Sophomore Dan McConaghy and sophomore Rich Renninger drove in three runs each and senior Frank Morelli plated two.
The game remained relatively close until the eighth inning, when the Crimson, leading 11-0, sent 16 batters to the plate and exploded for 10 more runs before the MIT second baseman was called to the mound to pitch for the final out.
"Overall, I was quite pleased with the season," said Coach Alex Nahigian. "A lot of our wins were come from behind, and the [Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball] League title came right down to the wire." Harvard dropped a doubleheader to Dartmouth in the last weekend of play and finished third in the EIBL behind the Green and Navy.
In addition to Chenevey's performance, senior Kevin Curtin, who replaced Chenevey in the fifth inning, tossed four innings of one-hit ball, giving up no runs and lowering his season ERA to 0.88 in the process.
After Chenevey struck out three MIT batters in the top of the first inning, Harvard jumped to a 5-0 lead on a sacrifice by McConaghy, an Engineer throwing error, and Jamieson's three-run bases-loaded double.
The Crimson tallied three more times in the second, as McConaghy came through again, this time with a bases-loaded double.
Two more Crimson runs scored in the fourth on a double by Renniger and one scored in the fifth on a sacrifice by senior Frank Caprio to build the Crimson lead to 11-0.
Ten Harvard runs scored in the eight on an unlikely combination of MIT errors, Harvard hits, and hit batters. Mark Sullivan, Andy Kohn, Morelli, Dave O'Connell, Renniger, and Jamieson all drove in at least one run each.
THE NOTEBOOK: Yesterday's game marked the final Crimson appearance for seniors Mike Pakalnis, Craig Boulris (who went four-for-five yesterday), Kevin Curtain, Jim DePalo, Dave Jamieson, Chris Marchok, and Ed Toland...During the past two seasons, Chenevey has tossed 52 strikeouts in just 29 innings of work...McConaghy, after going four-for-five against Tufts on Wednesday and two-for-three yesterday, finished the season with a .404 batting average (36-for-89) to lead all Crimson batters; this marks a .204 increase over his 1986 average.
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