The very next day, Harvard-facing elimination from the postseason-suffered its most devastating loss of the year. Leading 2-1 in the final inning, Birtwell was two outs away from nailing down the complete-game victory. But with the tying run on second base, Birtwell left a pitch out too far over the plate to Nickerson, who once again made the Crimson pay. His RBI-double sent the game into extra frames.

In the top of the tenth, Dartmouth tagged Birtwell for two runs to take a 4-2 lead. Harvard went down in order in the home half of the inning, and that was the game. Not to mention the season. The division title had slipped through Harvard's fingers.

Later that week, the season-ending Beanpot Tournament provided a regrettable conclusion to the 2001 campaign. The Crimson dropped both its games at Fenway Park, including a 9-8 loss to the same UMass team it had buried 22-11 the previous week. Harvard returned home as the last-place finisher in the Beanpot and a paler version of the team it had been just five games before.

"We played so well a couple weeks ago, I hadn't even thought about the season ending. I figured it would be going longer," senior outfielder Scott Carmack said after Harvard's final game. "It didn't work out that way. It's like a season cut short."

Harvard now faces the prospect of coming into next season minus half of its stellar starting rotation. Birtwell, an all-Ivy First Team pick in his senior season, is lost to graduation. Meanwhile, junior Ben Crockett-who attracted throngs of scouts to his starts all year long-may decide to leave school early and pursue a major league career.

If so, his final appearance in a Harvard uniform will have been a no-hitter. In the series finale against Dartmouth, Crockett struck out a career-best 14 Big Green hitters and faced just one batter over the minimum. His magnificent performance would have been a perfect game if not for an error committed on a fly ball that allowed the Big Green's lone baserunner to reach.

The error, though, came in the second inning, well before anyone had starting thinking about the possibility of a perfect game.

So close to perfection, and yet so far away-it was the story of Crockett's no-hit masterpiece, as well as the Crimson's season.