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Baseball Gets Swept on California Shores

William Friedkin's 1985 film To Live and Die in LA was a critical and box office dud. This weekend, the Harvard baseball team starred in three sequels anyway.

The Crimson (0-3, 0-0 Ivy) began its 2000 season in disappointing fashion, losing its first three games of the season to UCLA (14-10). The team's Westwood stint began with a 9-2 setback on Friday night. Saturday's doubleheader opened with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss, and in the bottom end of the twinbill the Crimson fell to the Bruins, 10-3.

Harvard entered each game with hopes of defeating the perennial national power. Sophomore Justin Nyweide (0-1) matched UCLA junior Rob Henkel (3-1) pitch-for-pitch in the first game's early stages, holding the Bruins scoreless for three innings. In Game Two, Harvard held leads of 2-0 and 4-2 before Rick Lyons capped a Bruin rally with a homer off senior closer Derek Lennon (0-1) in the final frame.

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Even ace John Birtwell (0-1) couldn't reverse the Crimson's fate in the final game, as the Bruins' big bats chased the sophomore off the mound after only 2.1 innings.

Harvard will head to the Homestead Challenge in Florida this Thursday in search of its first win.

UCLA 9, Harvard 2

Henkel entered the weekend as one of the hottest pitchers in baseball, having struck out sixteen batters in six innings in his last outing against Bradley. He managed to duplicate this feat against the Crimson, fanning sixteen in seven innings of work.

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