"This year I probably had the most poise on the hill I've had in college," Hogan said. "Whenever we got down, I stayed confident."

Harvard did not win any of its first six games by more than three runs. But the big hits and pitches were always somehow there just when Walsh needed them.

At 6-0, the Harvard baseball team was sitting on top of the world. But just as Skywalker had to confront Vader in order to become a true Jedi, Harvard had to beat Princeton before it could truly take itself seriously.

The Tigers came into Cambridge for an April 13 doubleheader against the undefeated Crimson with a 6-15 record, including a 1-5 mark against Ivy League opponents. On paper, the matchup looked like an easy one for Harvard.

And for most of the opener, it was. Harvard took a 6-0 lead into the final inning. Jamieson was pitching a six-hit shutout through six and two-thirds innings and was one strike away from completing Harvard's seventh victory of the season.

Then, with a runner on second, Princeton's Justin Griffin rapped an infield single to third. Jamieson hit the next batter. The next hitter doubled to right.

By the time the half-inning was over, eight Tigers had crossed the plate and the Crimson had fallen victim to one of the worst collapses in team history.

Again, Harvard had shot itself in the foot against Princeton. Demoralized after the 8-6 loss, the Crimson fell 2-0 in the nightcap. The losing pitcher in the second game was, eerily, Schafer.

But unlike last season, the Crimson had a chance for redemption, and took it.

The turning point in the season might have been when we lost two to Princeton," Hogan said. "We blew the game, but that might have been the best thing that happened to us. After that we never took an out for granted all season."

Harvard played out the rest of its season like a team possessed. Yale came into town the next weekend sitting undefeated atop the Red Rolfe division standings. The Crimson swept the Elis that weekend behind solid pitching efforts by Hogan, sophomore James Kalyvas and Duffell, followed by a 16-run barrage to close out the series.

After an expected weekend sweep of Brown, Harvard faced a four-game weekend series with Dartmouth. The Big Green entered the series trailing the Crimson by two games. With Yale also two games behind, Harvard could clinch the division title with three wins.

Playing in the inaugural games for newly christened O'Donnell Field, the Crimson exploded for 18 runs in the first game, with Vankoski and Ralph each leaving the yard, to take an 18-3 victory. In the nightcap, Albers drove in the winning run with an infield single to give Harvard a 7-6 win and a share of the division title.

Ralph homered again the next afternoon in Hanover to help the Crimson to a 12-3 win over the Big Green. The division title was solely Harvard's.

Later in the week, Harvard took down No. 18 UMass, avenging the Minutemen's Beanpot victory earlier in the season. Once Princeton defeated Penn in an Ivy League championship play-in game, the stage was set just as it had been the year before--the Crimson would face the Tigers for the Ivy title.