Brown retired six of the next seven hitters he faced after DiScipio’s homer. The one man he failed to retire—Eagle catcher Jeff Mackor—hit BC’s fourth homer of the day with one out in the fifth.
The blast put the Eagles ahead 7-2. BC padded that lead in the seventh, when they strung together five hits off Brown and Harvard junior Brendan Reed.
After scoring in each of the first seven innings, BC’s bats were finally quieted by weekend starters Ben Crockett and Madhu Saty. They pitched the eighth and ninth, respectively.
“[In retrospect] I’m thinking I should have thrown [Crockett and Saty] in the first and second to get us off to a good start,” Walsh said.
Usually the strength of the team, Harvard’s pitchers have given up 63 runs in the team’s last six games.
“We’re not getting our breaking balls over [the plate]—we’re in the dirt with them,” Walsh said. “Guys are sitting on fastballs, and unless you’ve got a real heater, they know it’s coming.”
Harvard managed its third and final run in the bottom of the ninth when A.J. Solomine hit a pinch-hit double, moved to third on an Ian Wallace single and scored on a double play.
Martinez retired eight Harvard batters in a row at one point en route to his first collegiate victory. He left the game after the eighth in favor of Morgan, who moved in from shortstop.
Martinez survived a slightly scary moment in his last inning of work. With two on and one out, Harvard sophomore first baseman Trey Hendricks lined a shot back up the middle that hit Martinez on his left arm. The Eagles pitcher picked up the ball in time to get Hendricks at first and—after a visit from the team’s trainer—got freshman catcher Schuyler Mann to pop out to end the inning.
Hendricks hit the ball hard all day but had just one single on the afternoon. He scored Harvard’s first run.
Mager and Wallace—who started at second base for the second straight game in place of injured senior Faiz Shakir—were Harvard’s two other bright spots. They each went 2-for-4.
The Crimson is idle until the weekend, when the team will travel to Yale for a crucial four-game series. Despite the Crimson’s 1-3 showing against Penn and Columbia last weekend, Harvard remains tied atop the Red Rolfe Division standings with Brown with a 5-3 Ivy record.
“I have a lot of confidence about this weekend,” Brown said. “Yale’s pitching has been decent this year, but I think our hitting is going to come around.”