Freshman second basemen ZAK FARKES (15) tries to avoid a BC runner.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—With an injury-depleted rotation and a tired bullpen heading into this critical Red Rolfe Division weekend, Harvard coach Joe Walsh prayed for—and got—rain on Saturday to postpone a pair of games against Brown. By the time the Crimson had thrown away one of the games and squandered a five-run lead in the second, he probably couldn’t help looking up in the sky for gray.

What he got was even more Brown—but the good kind.

Junior Jason Brown and freshman Morgan Brown turned in clutch relief pitching in extra innings and senior Brian Lentz delivered the game-winning double as Harvard beat Brown in 12 innings yesterday, 7-6, to close out a doubleheader at Stephenson Field. The Crimson had lost the first game, 5-3. The third and fourth games of the doubleheader, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, will be played today at noon.

With Dartmouth splitting a doubleheader with Yale yesterday, Harvard (14-19, 7-7 Ivy) remains a game up on the Big Green in the Red Rolfe Division Race. Sophomore Mike Morgalis will start the first game today. Jason Brown, who was scheduled to start today’s second game, threw an inning of relief today, throwing the identity of the second starter against the Bears (14-24-1, 5-9) into question.

“I was thinking about Jason for Game Four, but once we got the lead, I had to throw him,” Walsh said. “We’ll see if maybe we can get a few innings out of him [today].”

Harvard 7, Brown 6 (12 inn.)

By the time the 12th inning rolled around yesterday, Lentz was angry. The Crimson had lost all of a 5-0 fifth-inning lead, Lentz had watched a Barry Wahlberg wild pitch skitter past him to score a run as Brown made an eighth-inning comeback and had been called out at second on a controversial attempted suicide squeeze and steal in the top of the ninth. Lentz had left the base screaming at the umpire.

The two-strike pitch Lentz caught in the top of the 12th didn’t catch all of that anger, but Lentz got enough of it to line the ball past a shallow outfield and score freshman Zak Farkes from second to score what proved to be the winning run.

“I just haven’t been able to hit the ball in the air, to be honest with you,” Lentz said. “Everything I hit has been gone straight forward, there’s been no carry.”

But in a game when the ball was carrying past an outfield wall that had been moved in 10 feet during the offseason, Lentz’s hit just out of the reach of the centerfielder proved the biggest blow.

Senior Ryan Tsujikawa (1-2) made a brief appearance in the bottom of the 11th, getting Rob Deeb to fly out to end the inning. Jason Brown, who had been lights out during last Wednesday against Boston College in the Beanpot, pitched a hitless 12th for the save. He and Morgan Brown shut down the Bears in extra innings—although Morgan’s outing was a more adventurous one.

Brought in for the top of the 10th to relieve Wahlberg, Morgan Brown walked the leadoff man, Cameron Johnson, and gave up a one-out double down the line past freshman third baseman Josh Klimkiewicz to send the Bears to second and third with no outs. Morgan Brown intentionally walked Cameron Mitchell in order to face freshman Paul Christian with the bases loaded.

“Coach wanted me to throw a lot of ground balls, get the double play ball,” Morgan Brown said.

That didn’t happen—at least not right away. Christian lined a well-hit ball to shallow right, but freshman Lance Salsgiver made a spectacular catch while charging in and managed a relay throw to freshman Mike Dukovich at first that kept the lead run from scoring.

“That was huge,” Morgan Brown said. “That fired me up, I got a little second wind to get the last guy out.”