“Give Washington some credit,” Walsh said. “Their pitcher was outstanding. We couldn’t do enough against him.”

Crockett allowed ten hits, struck out nine and held the Huskies’ 3-4-5 batters hitless in 2 at-bats against him. He registered his 117th strikeout of the season in the ninth inning, setting a new single-season record formerly held by Ray Peters ’68.

“Crockett did a great job, not only today, but for the entire season, for his entire career,” Walsh said. “He’s the No. 1 pitcher on any ballclub, and he’s certainly our No. 1. He showed that today.”

Senior shortstop Mark Mager also secured a spot in the annals of Harvard baseball history, collecting his 208th career hit in the bottom of the ninth with a single to right, tying the mark set by Hal Carey ’99.

Wallace gave the Crimson an early lead with a single to left on a 1-2 count that scored Hale from third. Hale, a native of Seattle, had reached on a triple down the right field line off the team he had grown up following.

“It was definitely a little bit emotional,” Hale said. “We’re season-ticket holders for the basketball and football teams. I probably know 75 percent of the team.”

Washington went on to upset regional second seed Texas Tech in Saturday night’s game.

Rice 8, Harvard 3

Hordon’s start against Rice (48-11) was his first in over a month. The sophomore had injured his shoulder while sliding against Brown back in the middle of the Red Rolfe Division stretch run. When healthy, Hordon had enjoyed a superb year on the mound for the Crimson with a 1.61 ERA in four starts.

Hordon (2-3) showed signs of rust in the first inning, allowing two singles and two walks, balking on a full count and throwing a wild pitch past freshman catcher Schuyler Mann with the bases loaded that gave the Owls a 2-0 lead.

Hordon threw in the bullpen with assistant coach Gary Donovan during the top of the second, and whatever they worked on seemed to settle Hordon down. The righty retired eight of the next eleven batters to keep the Crimson in the game until the fifth, complementing his fastball and slider with an unorthodox slow curveball that kept the normally-explosive Rice batters guessing.

“He knew what he was doing,” Rice Coach Wayne Graham said of Hordon’s offspeed stuff, which at one point was clocked at 56 mph. “He was throwing some heatless curveballs that not many people can even get over the plate.”

But while Hordon’s pitching perplexed the usually hard-hitting Owls, Harvard’s bats were unable to close the gap. Rice’s Steven Herce held the Crimson hitless through 4.2 innings. Harvard didn’t even hit a ball out of the infield until Wallace’s fly to center in the fourth.

“I knew that the three-week layoff would be a problem,” Walsh said. “We just couldn’t lay off [Herce’s] breaking ball. We didn’t have any kind of flow or rhythm early in the game.”

Unlike Harvard, Rice had played as recently as May 26.