The Harvard baseball team’s home opener at O’Donnell Field yesterday turned out to be a comedy of errors. Harvard Coach Joe Walsh wasn’t laughing.

The Crimson (6-14, 2-2 Ivy) dropped its first home game to the University of Rhode Island (URI), 7-2, yesterday at windswept O’Donnell Field. The Rams (15-10) took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning without getting a hit and never looked back.

After the fifth inning, a visibly frustrated Walsh replaced virtually all of a lineup that had already committed three errors and several baserunning gaffes.

Down 5-0 at the time, Walsh’s mass benching seemed to ignite his squad. After sophomore reliever Barry Wahlberg pitched a scoreless top of the sixth, freshman outfielder Johann Schneider reached first on a single to left field. Junior outfielder Nick Carter brought him home with a two-run dinger over the 370-foot mark in left to bring the Crimson within three.

Harvard looked primed to come all the way back before the inning was through. With two outs, sophomore right fielder Nick Seminara found himself behind in the count, 0-2, but managed to earn a walk off freshman starter Matt Preston. A single by freshman infielder Mickey Kropf and a walk to senior catcher John O’Donnell loaded the bases.

But the Rams pulled Preston in favor of another freshman, Keith Ross, who was more than ready to stop the bleeding. Ross struck out senior infielder John Farmer looking to end the inning. The Crimson would not threaten again.

The fifth-inning rally almost forgave a start in which very few things went right for the Crimson. Junior starter Justin Nyweide (0-3) struggled with his control early on, walking four batters in his five innings of work, including two on four pitches. However, he did manage to escape several jams by employing a superb pickoff move. Nyweide caught men napping on second base in the second and fifth innings.

Unfortunately for Harvard, Nyweide’s teammates were much less stellar in the field. With sophomore defensive catcher Brian Lentz absent from the lineup, Rhode Island was very aggressive on the basepaths. The Rams effectively used the hit-and-run, and six Harvard errors only helped them.