BOSTON-The Harvard baseball team entered yesterday's Beanpot consolation game against Northeastern knowing that the season was about to end earlier than it would have liked.
No one could have predicted just how early the actual game would be over.
Northeastern jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back as the Crimson (18-26, 11-9 Ivy) lost its final game of the season yesterday, falling to the Huskies at Fenway Park, 7-2.
"We didn't come in here to Fenway and play to our capabilities," Harvard Coach Joe Walsh said after the team's last place Beanpot finish. "We didn't play with fire. As a coach, it hurts."
Freshman lefty starter Kenon Ronz struck out the first batter he faced, but then walked Huskie third baseman Luke Carlin. Carlin advanced to second on a ball thrown past senior Scot Hopps, who started the final game of the year behind the plate in place of sophomore Brian Lentz.
After first baseman Trey Hendricks misplayed a batted ball to allow the next hitter to get aboard, Northeastern's Ben Beck tripled to bring two runs home. Two batters later, left fielder Pedro Pena blasted Ronz' 0-2 pitch deep into dead center field. The ball landed in the tarp over the center field bleachers, and the Crimson suddenly faced a 4-0 deficit.
Ronz had also struggled over the weekend against Dartmouth, and had seen his ERA rise a full point in his last three starts.
"He started out well, but his fastball has been getting banged around," Walsh said. "We haven't done a good job using our 0-2 pitch to set up the next pitch. You throw a fastball on 2-0, and I'm fine with that. But on 0-2-it's little things like that."
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