Third baseman Nick Carter leads the Harvard offense. The junior is hitting a team-high .370, and he also leads the team with seven home runs. By contrast, no one else on the team bats above .340 or has hit more than four homers.

Despite Harvard's recent power surge, the strength of the team remains its pitching staff, which has remained consistently effective throughout the year.

Dartmouth is the mirror image of the Crimson, relying on powerful hitting to offset some shaky pitching.

Freshman shortstop Scott Shirrell paces the Big Green attack. Shirrell leads Dartmouth in seven offensive categories and sports a gaudy .414 average.

Shirrell also leads Dartmouth in steals with 11. With his combination of speed and power, the shortstop has scored on almost two-thirds of the times he has reached base.

But Dartmouth's offense does not begin and end with Shirrell. The Big Green ranks 18th in the country with a .328 team batting average.

Fortunately, Dartmouth pitchers have been nowhere near as good. Ace Lawrence Fry (3-2, 2.23 ERA) has been very effective, allowing only seven extra-base hits all season. However, every other Dartmouth pitcher has an ERA of at least 2.5 runs higher.

With so much at stake between two closely-matched teams, the series may turn on a wild card factor.