According to Walsh, Klimkiewicz had been limited by the knee, which he learned had swollen up after last week’s Princeton series. But for Klimkiewicz, there was a mental component to a slump that found him hitting around .265 for most of the season.

“I got into a bad habit back in the fall when it was still sore, keeping my weight way back and pushing off,” Klimkiewicz said. “I wasn’t getting any twist on it because I was taking my whole body out of the swing. I developed some muscle memory into that, so I watched myself on video to figure out what I was doing wrong.”

Klimkiewicz sat out the fourth game as a precaution and was replaced by freshman Morgan Brown, who had two hits.

“We didn’t want him out there too much with the swelling in his knee,” Walsh said. “Morgan did a nice job.”

Dukes and Hazards

Among the more serious concerns for the Crimson right now is the health of junior Trey Hendricks, who limped noticeably through all four games this weekend and left O’Donnell Field on the back of a cart on Saturday.

According to Walsh, Hendricks has been battling patella tendonitis for a while, but he had never been this badly hobbled.

“He’s been sitting. He’s been riding the bike and not running and getting through it,” Walsh said. “He’s usually okay in a day or two, but we might have to sit him for a little while. Hopefully that’s all that is, patella tendinitis.”

Walsh speculated that Hendricks was hurt by having to pitch game two and then take the field again on Saturday instead of having several days off to recover after his start. But Hendricks seemed compromised on the basepaths from as early as the first game on Friday afternoon, when he scored a run in the fourth inning.

Any serious injury to Hendricks would be a brutal blow for the Crimson. He leads the team in batting average (.381), home runs (5), RBI (29) and slugging (.610) and has also been one of the team’s most consistent pitchers. Walsh said Hendricks will be evaluated this week.

After Hendricks left the last game in the fifth, freshman Mike Dukovich stepped in at first. Dukovich provided some of the most memorable moments of the blowout with a leadoff double deep to center in the seventh and an eye-opening diving catch on a Dave Fortenbaugh pop up deep in foul territory in the ninth.

“I always played first base when I was younger,” Dukovich said. “I knew I could play defensively out there.”

Brought to Cambridge primarily as a pitcher, Dukovich felt comfortable doing emergency duty for a team that, on paper, lacks infield depth. Senior Brian Lentz and sophomore Schuyler Mann—both catchers—have also played first this season, but more out of necessity than anything else.

“Being a bench player, whatever chances you get, you gotta make the most of them,” Dukovich said. But as encouraging as this outing was for Dukovich, the team can only hope that a serious injury to Hendricks doesn’t press the rookie into extended service at first for too long.

—Staff writer Martin S. Bell can be reached at msbell@fas.harvard.edu.