On the other hand, consider that five years ago, Walsh readily admitted—bragged?—to the Globe how his team fielded few players who could “hit the ball where the grass doesn’t grow.” Now Harvard does. This spring has seen the return of Brian Lentz, Schuyler Mann, and a leaner, even more muscular Trey Hendricks as power threats, not to mention the smash debut of a crop of freshmen who can just plain mash. Entering yesterday, Harvard had half as many home runs as it had all of last year in a third of the games.

The long-ball potential with this group is big, but their swings yesterday were even bigger. “We had guys rolling over, trying to pull the ball rather than just trying to drive it,” said Walsh, who, with a runner on second, has always applauded a well-placed grounder to the right side as much as a gap-shot double.

Farkes thinks Harvard has enough talent to combine Harvard’s past and its present and incorporate both styles of play.

“Our lineup’s versatile enough where anybody should be just as capable of driving a ball into the gap as dropping down a bunt,” Farkes said. “We’ve talked before about playing small-ball and we show flashes of that, but we’re inconsistent.”

That hurt Harvard yesterday, when that approach would have been most appropriate. In general, Walsh said, he likes the pop he has throughout his lineup, but would like to see the top and bottom of the order be more disciplined at the plate, more aggressive around the bases, more drilled in the fundamentals of manufacturing runs.

More like Rhode Island. Which is to say, more like the Harvard of old.

For all that went wrong in the Crimson’s home-opening loss, it was the littlest of failures that frustrated Walsh the most yesterday.

“We didn’t bunt once today,” he said in disbelief. “That’s going to come back to haunt us.”

—Staff writer Brian E. Fallon can be reached at bfallon@fas.harvard.edu.