In baseball, a hitter's wind can be a pitcher's worst enemy.

Yesterday, it drove UMass Loonie.

The Harvard baseball team exploded for seven runs in the first inning off Minuteman starter David Loonie en route to a 21-11 massacre of UMass at O'Donnell Field yesterday.

With winds gusting at 25 m.p.h., four Harvard hitters went deep five times in yesterday's game. The Minutemen slugged four homers of their own-good for eight of their 11 runs-but the Crimson (17-21, 10-7 Ivy) put the game out of reach early.

In Harvard's seven-run first inning, junior second baseman baseman Faiz Shakir hit a three-run double and shortstop Mark Mager stroked a two-run single to lead the Crimson offense.

After junior third baseman Nick Carter homered and freshman DH Trey Hendricks doubled to start off the next inning, Loonie was finally given the hook, charged with nine runs in just the one inning of work.

But that wasn't all, folks.

Harvard scored four more runs in the bottom of the second off a grand slam by senior left fielder Joe Llanes to open up a 12-1 lead.

After hitting just 17 homers all of last season, Harvard has jacked 25 already this year.

"Our hitters are maturing," said Harvard captain Scot Hopps, who went deep twice. "A lot of guys really worked hard in the gym in the offseason. We're stronger hitters [this year]."

Harvard sophomore starter Ryan Tsujikawa lasted 4.1 innings to earn his first win, and junior Chaney Sheffield picked up a three-inning save.

UMass managed to cut Harvard's lead to 12-5 in the top of the fifth on DH Nick Gorneault's second homer of the afternoon.

But Harvard put the game away a half inning later with an eight-run explosion highlighted by a two-run shot by Hopps and a two-run double by Mager.

By the end of the inning, not even the scoreboard could keep up with Harvard's offense. The runs column only goes as high as 19.

Fortunately, though, the hits column goes past 20. For the second straight game, the Crimson banged out 21 hits.

"Our pitching has always been the best in the league," Hopps said. "Now that we're hitting well, everything's coming together."

Senior outfielder Scott Carmack went 2-for-6 with a homer, while Hopps, Hendricks and Mager each collected three hits apiece.

Also, freshman center fielder Bryan Hale continued his hot hitting of late, going 2-for-3 and scoring three runs. Since last Wednesday-when he hit his first career homer in a 6-1 win at B.C.-Hale has batted just under .400 with three homers and 14 runs scored.

"From the B.C. game on, he definitely has had a different approach," Hopps said. "He's not swinging at bad pitches and just doing what comes naturally."

Harvard added its final run in the sixth inning when Hopps connected for his second homer of the game.

Though his first may have aided by the wind, Hopps' second tater was definitely the product of a smart piece of hitting.

After taking a first-pitch fastball, Hopps was able to correctly predict UMass reliever Pat Reedy's next offering.

"I was going to look inside for the fastball," said Hopps, who plays catcher. "But then I noticed [Reedy] do something that pitchers usually do when they want the same pitch but a different location-he brushed his glove against his chest."

Hopps' guesswork paid off handsomely, as he crushed Reedy's outside fastball for his third homer of the year.

"That one felt a lot better coming off the bat than the first [homer]," Hopps said.

Riding a three-game winning streak, the Crimson will travel to Hanover, N.H., to face Dartmouth this weekend. Harvard can clinch the Red Rolfe Division title by taking three out of four from the Big Green.

Notes

Carter went 2-for-3 yesterday to up his team-leading average to .370. He also has 50 hits to credit this season...The Crimson has scored 61 runs in its last five games...As a team, Harvard is hitting .292 this season, up from .258 last year. Six Harvard regulars are currently batting over .300; only one finished above .300 in 2000.