“We scratched for a couple of runs,” Walsh said. “I didn’t really think we hit that well, but when you are able to get up, get good defense and throw strikes, good things happen.”

Princeton scored its only run in the bottom of the second inning. With two outs, Sheffield walked Young on a full count. When Sheffield’s pick-off attempt in the dirt got by San Salvador, Young advanced to third on the error.

Senior shortstop Pat Boran then lined a single to left field just out of the reach of a leaping Mager to drive in the Tigers only run.

Junior Ryan Quillian (3-5) took the loss for the Tigers.

Harvard 5, Princeton 1

Nyweide (5-3) struggled early, walking the first two batters he faced on nine pitches, but rebounded to throw perhaps his best game of the year to give Harvard the 1-0 lead in the series.

In his final seven innings of work, Nyweide allowed only three hits and three walks while striking out nine Tigers. Nywiede struck out a career-high 14 batters for the game.

“After he settled down it was obvious that no one was going to touch him,” Mager said. “That was huge.”

It took Nyweide a while to settle down, though.

After walking Boran and leftfielder Eric Ftizgerald to put men on first and second with no outs, Nyweide got out of the jam. He struck out Balkan swinging on a full-count offering, and sophomore catcher Mickey Kropf completed the double play by throwing out Boran , who was attempting to steal third.

Nyweide then walked Miller to put men on first and second with two outs. But after a chat on the mound with Walsh, Nywiede froze Eldridge with a 1-2 breaking ball at the knees for an inning-ending strikeout.

“I was definitely my own worst enemy in the first two innings,” said Nyweide, who threw a career high 155 pitches in the outing. “But one of the tricks I learned over the summer was you’ve got to fake it ‘til you make it.”

After falling behind 1-0 on an RBI double by Riech that scored Lahey in the top of the second, the Crimson took the lead for good in the bottom of the third.

Lopez chopped an infield hit over Princeton starter Ross Ohlendorf to lead off the inning. Wallace laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Lopez, but senior third baseman Erik Voelker’s throw pulled Eldridge off of the bag at first. A fielding error by Voelker on a bunt by senior second baseman Faiz Shakir loaded the bases.