Relieving Davidson, Vanech pitched effectively, if not brilliantly. The native Rhode Islander yielded only three hits while striking out two in six innings of shutout ball.
Despite making three errors, the Crimson backed-up its pitchers with several spectacular plays in the field.
In the fourth inning, senior second baseman Bo Bernard turned a superb double play. After fielding a sharply hit grounder, he tagged the base-runner going from first to second, wheeled, and fired to first to complete the twin-killing.
Later, in the seventh, sophomore Peter Albers bare-handed a slow grounder to third and fired to first in time to nail Engineer catcher Edward Kohler.
Despite the sensational pitching and fielding by both teams, though, a few runs actually crossed the plate.
Harvard gift-wrapped MIT's only run in the top of the first, walking two Engineer batters and committing a throwing error with two outs to hand MIT a 1-0 lead.
The lead would be short-lived, however, as the Crimson battled back in the bottom the inning.
Following a text-book drag bunt by Brain Ralph, junior first baseman Scott Parrot slugged a 375-foot triple to right center, evening the score at 1-1.
Then, with two out in the bottom of the sixth, Harvard struck again.
Bernhard took first when his third strike eluded MIT catcher Kohler for a passed ball. Then designated hitter Craig Wilke singled up the middle, moving Bernhard to second.
Albers produced in the clutch, lining a single to right to drive in Bernhard, putting the Crimson ahead for good, 2-1.
Harvard furthered distanced itself from MIT in the eight. Left fielder Joe Weidenbach scored from second on a Wilke single to add an insurance run.
"MIT is very well coached team," Hogan said. "And that's the type of pitcher we've lost to in the past when we haven't made the plays."
Yesterday, however, the Crimson made all the plays.
HARVARD, 3-1 at Soldiers Field R H E MIT 100 000 000 -- 1 3 HR:None. 3B: MIT--None; Harvard--Parrot. 2B: MIT--None; Harvard--Wilke, Doble. E: MIT--Kyle (2) Kohler; Harvard--Albers, Parrot, Hochanadel. WP: Vanech (1-0); LP: Loutsch (1-4)