"[The play] was just a matter of miscommunication that shouldn't have happened," Franey said.

Brown managed to score one more run that inning, when, with runners at the corners and two outs, it ran a delayed double-steal.

With Brown sophomore Rick Lynn at the plate, Merten took off from first, drawing a throw from Harvard catcher Brian Lentz. Merten then stopped short of second and deliberately entered into a rundown, enabling the lead runner to score from third uncontested.

The Crimson ended up tagging Burton out, but did so after the run had crossed the plate.

"That's actually a play we run," Shakir said. "It's a play we could have made but we were more concerned with getting the third out."

Before fielding errors allowed Brown to take over the lead, Harvard actually got on the board first in the bottom half of the first inning.

Sophomore shortstop Mark Mager drew a lead-off walk and advanced to third base on a perfectly-executed hit-and-run play, as second baseman Faiz Shakir lined a single up the middle with the runner going.

Lentz then plated Mager with an RBI-groundout to first base.