At the start of the season, Harvard baseball coach Joe Walsh said that he thought his team was as good as any in the Ivy League.

But he also stressed that there was one factor that could potentially put the Crimson (9-17, 4-4 Ivy) over the top.

"For Nick Carter to step up and have a big year for us would be a big boost," Walsh said. "If Carter could put up some numbers, that'd be scary."

Maybe it was a vote of confidence or maybe it was a challenge. Either way, Harvard's junior third baseman has responded in a big way. After advertising all the tools of a premier slugger in his first two seasons, Carter has put everything together in his junior year and is enjoying quite the breakout season.

In the hit parade that was Harvard's 9-8 win over Holy Cross on Wednesday, Carter was the grand marshal. The box score said it all-three hits, two runs scored, two RBI, and his team-leading sixth homer of the season to boot.

For any other player in the Ivy League, that kind of performance would have constituted a banner day. But for Carter, it was just another Wednesday.

In what has so far been an up-and-down season for most of Harvard's hitters, Carter has been one of the team's most potent men at the plate, as well as its most consistent. One of only two Harvard players to play in all 26 of the team's games, Carter boasts a .378 average along with team-best totals in runs (21), home runs (6), and RBI (19). Statistics may not always tell the whole story, but in this case, they definitely illustrate the renaissance that Carter has undergone at the plate this season.

In the past, Carter was strikeout-prone. Last year, for instance, he had more strikeouts than hits, fanning once every four trips to the plate.