It was an old-fashioned National League-style ballgame yesterday afternoon at O'Donnell field--strong pitching, timely hitting and a tension-filled ending.

Unfortunately for the Harvard baseball team, it couldn't find that one final hit against Boston College, losing for the first time in six games, 4-3.

Down 4-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Harvard bats broke out of their slumber. Facing freshman closer Matt Duffey, right fielder and tri-captain Jeff Bridich hit a hard ground ball in between the first and second basemen for a single. Second baseman Faiz Shakir then singled into center. Sophomore shortstop Mark Mager followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt that put Shakir and Bridich in scoring position.

After Bridich scored on a sacrifice fly, first baseman John Franey hit an infield single. Third baseman Nick Carter, who had struck out twice earlier in the game, drew four straight balls from Duffey to load the bases. Harvard (13-13, 7-1 Ivy) had the Eagles (23-11, 5-7 Big East) right where it wanted them, with star catcher Brian Lentz up. The sophomore nailed a line drive, but the ball went straight into the glove of B.C. center fielder Jarett Mendoza to end the game.

The last inning, however, was not indicative of the way the Harvard bats had been most of the afternoon. Harvard had only five hits in the first eight innings while striking out ten times. The Crimson benefited from seven walks but also struck out four times with the bases loaded, twice to end innings.

The key to the Eagles' success was starting pitcher Paul Knapic. Despite a shaky start, including three straight walks in the first inning, Knapic effectively neutralized the Crimson lineup with a good combination of off-speed pitches and high heat. Working quickly from the windup, the righthander pitched smartly to avoid bad situations. He threw seven strong innings, striking out a career-high nine while giving up only five hits and one earned run to improve his record to 2-1.

Knapic capitalized on Harvard's tendency to swing at pitches up in the strike zone. Some of his strikeouts were three straight fastballs, each consecutive pitch higher than the last. He stayed high the whole game and the Crimson didn't even get the ball on the ground until the seventh inning. More importantly, he pitched his way out of jams.

"We had Knapic early," Harvard Coach Joe Walsh said. "We wanted him to pitch more from the stretch, but never got the opportunity. We haven't seen a guy with that much pop."