Pedro Martinez might be Beantown's biggest pitching sensation of this young hardball season, but this side of the Charles, Joe Walsh's Crimson has an ace of its own.

One weekend and three wins into the Ivy League season, Walsh can boast that he's bagged what may be the top rookie in the Ancient Eight in freshman righthander John Birtwell. HARVARD  8 CORNELL  3 HARVARD  3 CORNELL  1

The Walpole, Mass. native shut down Cornell 3-1 in Ithaca, N.Y. on Sunday afternoon, closing out a doubleheader sweep which boosted Harvard (10-7,3-1 Ivy) into a first-place tie in the Ivy's Red Rolfe Division.

Birtwell--working after junior righthander Donny Jamieson had blanked the Big Red (7-8-1, 2-2) over five and one-third innings in the opener--threw five and two-thirds innings of four-hit ball, striking out nine while walking two, upping his record to a staff-best 3-0.

And perhaps most stunningly, Birtwell maintained his perfect 0.00 ERA, allowing one unearned run, extending his season-long perfect streak to 18 and two-thirds innings.

"[Junior catcher Jason] Keck called a great game," Birtwell said. "I was hitting my spots, and I had good defense behind me, the way it's been all year."

Birtwell and Jamieson combined to go 11 innings without allowing an earned run, fanning 12 over the two games as the Crimson bats broke through for 17 hits and 11 runs.

Harvard 8, Cornell 3

One day after dropping the second game of a doubleheader to the Princeton Tigers in a 10-2 decision, Harvard hit Cornell's Hoy Field ready to get back on track against the sub-500 Big Red.

Two innings in, however, junior starter James Kalyvas was in some self-created trouble.

The righthander walked two batters and hit two others, as Cornell took advantage of an uncharacteristic error by senior shortstop David Forst to string together three unearned runs before Walsh went to his bullpen.

Enter Jamieson, who had an unfortunate start with an 0-1 record and a 9.00 ERA out of the spring break trip, to close out the second inning and stop the bleeding at 3-0.

Trailing early for the second day in a row, and worried about the short seven-inning doubleheader format, the Harvard bats snapped back into form in the top of the third, tagging Cornell starter Nick Bayer for a five-spot in the top of the third.

Junior leftfielder Aaron Kessler's RBI double off Bayer scored senior designated hitter Brett Vankoski and junior third baseman Peter Woodfork with what proved the game-winning runs.

"We knew we had to bounce back Sun-day," Woodfork said. "In the third, we really wanted to get something together. We usually try to score one run an inning, but we weren't going to say no to five."

Jamieson, meanwhile, found his groove on the hill, facing only three above the minimum through five and one-third, allowing two hits, striking out three and walking one to post his first win of the 1998 campaign.