Moments after his team closed out its Ivy League season against Dartmouth last month, Harvard baseball coach Joe Walsh was asked one of those difficult questions that has no right answer.

"Do you think your team was the best in the Ivy League this year?"

Usually quick with a sharp-witted reply, Walsh could not help but tiptoe politely around this one.

How could he say yes? The Crimson had just dropped three of four games in a weekend series with the Big Green, blowing its chance to clinch the division title and ending the year just one game above .500 in the Ivy standings.

Best in the Ivies? More like middle-of-the-pack.

But as Walsh knew, pointing simply to the Crimson's record (18-26, 11-9 Ivy) and its third-place finish in the Red Rolfe Division would have been selling his team short. This was a team that sat in first place until the last week of the season and finished at or near the top of the league in batting average (.296), stolen bases (48) and homers (30). Harvard's pitchers posted an impressive 4.26 ERA, holding other teams' hitters to just a .273 average.

By comparison, the team that eventually went on to win the Ivy League-Princeton-had a pitching staff with a 6.40 ERA. Opposing hitters pounded the Tigers at a .332 clip. In its two meetings with the Tigers this year, the Crimson beat them 6-2 and very easily could have taken the second game, but fell 3-2 in extra innings.

So was Harvard the league's best team? It certainly seemed so at times.