"Billy Ball" is back in Beantown.

No, five-time Yankee manager Billy Martin has not come back from the dead to inflict another painful wound in the souls of the faithful fans at Fenway.

Rather, it is the Harvard men's baseball team that intends to use its version of Martin's "scratch and claw" offense this year.

With the departures of power hitters Nick DelVecchio '92 (now a hot prospect in the New York Yankees organization), Jim Mrowka '92 and Dan Scanlan '92, Head Coach Leigh Hogan will have to rely on oftneglected plays like the hit and run, the sacrifice and the stolen base more often.

"You would get on base and feel as if you were on a deserted island last year, that is, until someone doubled you home," junior Dave Morgan said. "Now we have to generate every base we can get."

The Crimson comes into the 1993 campaign with five positions set: Captain Mike Hill in right field, senior Juan Zarate in center field, senior Phil Andriola behind the plate, Morgan at first base and junior Mike Giardi at shortstop.

Senior Ray Desrocher and sophomore Scott David son will return to the starting rotation, and will likely be joined by senior Chip Poncy and junior Jeff Mitchell to form the starting four.

Other keys to the pitching staff include sophomores Mike Cicero, Ben Allen and Jamie Irving. (Irving, by the way, is an ambidextrous switch-pitcher.)

In the field, sophomores Bo Bernhard and Bryan Brissette and junior Eric Weissman will view for the second and third base positions, while Brissette and sophomores James Crowley and Joe Weidenbach will compete for the left field job.

With so many young players, the key factor in Harvard's success will be whether the team can jell into consistent performers.

'We need to be a fundamentally sound team and do all the intangibles necessary for winning," Hill said. "We are promoting team unity this year, and people like [sophomore] Billy Madden and [freshman] Paul Levy-role players-are coming through."

Take, for example, the team's exhibition road trip through Florida last weekend. The Crimson had not come back from such a journey with a winning record in over eight years, but this year's squad posted a 3.2 mark.

Harvard split doubleheaders against Cleveland St. and Toledo on Friday and Saturday and then finished the trip with a win over Toledo on Sunday.

In fact, all three Harvard wins came on comebacks in the latter innings, including a five-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth in the trip's finale.

"There is so much parity in the Ivy League that it is good to see that we can come back from deficits late in games," Zarate said.