NEW YORK--Showcasing both sides of its personality, the Harvard baseball team played two clean games on its opening Ivy League weekend and two forgettable ones. HARVARD  18 PENN  16 HARVARD  6 PENN  0 HARVARD  9 COLUMBIA  1 HARVARD  8 COLUMBIA  9

As luck would have it, the Crimson dropped only one of four.

Harvard took an eight-inning, 18-16 decision from Penn on Friday. but a late rally fell short in Saturday's nightcap at Columbia, with Harvard losing 9-8 in a game the Lions tried their best to give away.

Sandwiched in between those messy two were a pair of pitching gems--sophomore John Birtwell's 6-0 shutout of Penn and freshman Ben Crockett's 9-1 mastery of Columbia--that allowed Harvard to post a 3-1 mark on the weekend.

But although the Crimson (9-8, 3-1 Ivy) took three of four from two Gehrig Division foes, nobody was talking about a successful weekend.

"We shouldn't lose to this ball club," said Harvard Assistant Coach Gary Donovan after the loss to Columbia on Saturday. Coach Joe Walsh was attending to a family matter and did not travel to New York.

"We took three out of four this weekend, but we haven't played well and we're not happy at all," Donovan said.

In comments that reflected the palpable disgust of the two-time defending Ivy champs, captain Hal Carey said the team was totally dissatisfied.

"Winning three games isn't really any consolation," Carey said. "We come into every weekend looking to win four, and we feel we're a better team than this."

Columbia 9, Harvard 8

It was a bad omen when senior Andrew

Duffell, a converted starter who had earned arelief win on Friday, lasted only two batters intothe second inning of a 9-8 loss in Saturday'snightcap at Baker Field.

The Crimson's fortunes didn't get any betterafter that.

After surrendering a leadoff home run to firstbaseman Peter Aswad and a single to centerfielderDave Lewis, Duffell clutched his right elbow inpain and had to give way to junior Derek Lennon.

"The initial word is that it's an elbow sprain,but we don't know for sure and we don't have atimetable," Donovan said.

Duffell's early exit was all the more painfulbecause the righthander seemed to have returned tothe form of his sophomore year, when he posted an8-1 record and a 2.35 ERA. Duffell spent most of1998 battling the after-effects of off-seasonsurgery but was 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA in the earlygoing this season.