"They always swing the bats well and play good defense," Forst said. "Clark and Dagliere have hurt us in the past two years. But we'll still concentrate on playing our game, and if we play like we played yesterday, we should win."

If Harvard does win, it will be one of just seven teams to accomplish that feat. None of UMass' eight losses have been to ranked teams, but its recent success--it has won seven straight--has been good enough to earn it No. 30 ranking in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

The Minutemen and the Crimson both played at the Homestead Challenge in South Florida in March, but the two teams did not meet.

"They're always a strong team," Keck said. "We were not too impressed in Florida, [where UMass lost five games] but they're on a pretty strong streak."

When Harvard last played UMass, the Crimson was a different bunch of players. They had not yet won an Ivy title, which they did last season by beating Princeton in the championship series. They had also not yet won in the NCAA Regional Tournament, which they did in the Midwest Regionals against No. 4 UCLA and Stetson.

But they still have not won a Beanpot.

"This is for bragging rights," Linden said. "We definitely want to win. It's neat to win in Fenway, and it's another good team we have a chance to play--that will be important down the road."

The jury's still out on whether this year's Harvard team can match the feats of last year's.

Tomorrow may very well be a key piece of evidence. The rest, as they say, is history.