As Professor of History William E. Gienapp is fond of saying in his "History 1653: Baseball and American Society" lectures, organized baseball will go out of its way to resist change.

The Ivy League did just that yesterday when it handed the Harvard baseball team the Ancient Eight crown for the third consecutive season. Harvard (28-16, 16-4 Ivy) faced arch-rival Princeton (25-20, 15-5) in the Ivy championship series for the fourth straight year and won the first and third games of the three-game set at O'Donnell Field to advance to the NCAA Tournament. HARVARD  8 PRINCETON  7 PRINCETON  7 HARVARD  6 HARVARD  5 PRINCETON  4

Minutes before the celebration began, however, the Tigers held a two-run lead and were two outs away from starting a new era in Ivy baseball. But the Crimson dynasty remained intact when a succession of ground balls and Texas Leaguers in the top of the ninth culminated in a two-run single by freshman designated hitter Faiz Shakir, who gave Harvard the tying and winning runs.

Senior righthander Andrew Duffell put the tying run on first when he hit Princeton sophomore catcher Casey Hildreth with a pitch but got the win after classmate Garett Vail retired the final two Tigers to secure the 5-4 victory for his third save of the season.

"That was as exciting a ballgame as anyI've been involved in," Coach Joe Walsh said."I've been on the other end of those games andthings just didn't go our way all day. I stillwasn't sure it was going to happen but we had somekids that stepped up when we needed them most."

Shakir's hit--a lined shot over the head ofPrinceton freshman shortstop Pat Boran with thebases loaded--was the climax of a championshipseries in which all three games were decided byone run. The visiting team trailed by two runsearly in all three games but went on to win eachcontest.

Harvard's three-run ninth in Game Three was theonly successful final-inning comeback of theseries. The Tigers forced the rubber match bystaving off a three-run Crimson rally in thebottom of the ninth to win Game Two, 7-6. Harvardheld on to win Game One, 8-7, despite giving uptwo Princeton runs in the last half-inning.

The Crimson will complete the regular seasonTuesday at Northeastern before studying for examsand waiting for the NCAA to announce brackets andpairings May 24. The 16 regional sites will beannounced May 17.

"The whole team feels a sense of relief," saidsenior catcher Jason Keck. "Everybody expected usto win it all. Since we didn't have the bestseason, we were kind of tense and I felt that weplayed that way this weekend. But now that we arehere [in the NCAAs], I think we can let loose,play tough and see what happens."

Harvard 5, Princeton 4

Things were not looking good for the Crimsonheading into the ninth inning. Boran's homer tocenter field in the bottom of the seventh gave theTigers a 4-2 lead. Senior second baseman PeterWoodfork died on first in the next half-inningafter his third hit of the game when senior centerfielder Andrew Huling grounded out to Tiger secondbaseman Jay Mitchell. Harvard had three outs toget two runs and seven batters would have theirchance before its two best hitters-Woodfork (.396)and Huling (.411)-would hit again.

Keck then led off with a single to right fieldfor his third hit of the game. Sophomoreright fielder Scott Carmack replaced Keck on firstwith a fielder's choice and moved to second on asingle up the middle by freshman pinch hitter JoshSan Salvador.

That forced Princeton manager Scott Bradley tocall in bullpen ace Jeff Golden, giving the seniorrighthander the single-season school record with22 appearances and a chance for his seventh saveof the season.

But Harvard freshman shortstop Mark Magerblooped a single over Boran's head, loading thebases for junior first baseman Erik Binkowski.Boran grabbed Binkowski's hard grounder up themiddle but could not make a play as Carmack scoredto cut the Tiger lead to one run and the basesremained full.

Up stepped Shakir, a 5'9" defensive specialistwhom Walsh penciled in at the nine-hole because hewas a left-handed hitter. In Game One he was0-for-2 with two strikeouts and, although he haddoubled earlier and is hitting .407, he wasmaking only the 27th at bat of his collegiatecareer. But the rookie slapped Golden's pitch tocenter field to drive in the fifth and sixth runsof his career.

"I had a rough day Saturday but I just tried toget that out of my head," Shakir said. "I washappy when Coach let me come up in that situationwith the bases loaded and everybody on the teamhad confidence in me. This was the greatest momentof my career in sports."