Pauly gave the Crimson small chances the rest of the way with an uncharacteristic seven walks, including free passes for freshman Lance Salsgiver and Dukovich in the top of the ninth that set up the Herrmann at-bat. But just as in that inning, Pauly always had an answer. He finished with 10 strikeouts.

“We were coming together when we had those couple hits in a row,” Salsgiver said. “I thought we’d keep hitting him. But he came back really strong and basically threw seven perfect innings after that.”

Morgalis (3-4) was very effective in the early going, keeping the Tigers hitless the first two innings as the Crimson built a 2-0 lead. Salsgiver beat out an infield grounder that Tigers’ second baseman Steve Young briefly bobbled to get on base, and junior Bryan Hale brought him home on a double that right fielder Andy Salini jogged beneath but seemed to misjudge. Hale scored when Dukovich singled to shallow center on a 1-2 count in the next at-bat.

But Princeton got those runs back in the third inning when an Eric Fitzgerald grounder squirted through Ian Wallace’s hands, and back-to-back bloop singles brought the run home. A deep sacrifice fly off the bat of Princeton’s Ryan Eldridge tied it shortly thereafter.

By the time the big fourth inning was over, Walsh had pulled Morgalis in favor of Salsgiver, who moved in from right to pitch the first 2.2 innings of his collegiate career. Walsh said that he got worried after the Tiger lineup had seen Morgalis three times through.

The Salsgiver hunch worked—he, senior Ryan Tsujikawa and captain Barry Wahlberg combined to allow only two hits the rest of the way—but Pauly surrendered only one hit in the final seven innings.

“I thought Lance put in a good effort today,” Walsh said. “I thought everybody did.”

Harvard 4, Princeton 3

Klimkiewicz prolonged Harvard’s season with two swings of the bat on Saturday. In a desperation game in which Harvard could muster only five hits, Klimkiewicz made his two count.

Klimkiewicz knocked in all four of the Crimson’s runs on a two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the first and a 400-foot home run to center field in the third.

The double came after Klimkiewicz had worked a seven-pitch at-bat out of Princeton’s Ross Ohlendorf (4-2), who is regarded as one of the conference’s better pitching prospects. With Salsgiver and senior catcher Brian Lentz on second and third after a double steal, Klimkiewicz laced Ohlendorf’s eighth pitch to right to give Harvard a 2-1 lead.

The home run came after Princeton had tied it on an RBI infield single by Szymanski. With Salsgiver 90 feet away after stealing second and third, Mann hit a fielder’s choice to Mike Chernoff at short, and Chernoff was able to gun Salsgiver down at the plate.

But in the next at-bat, Klimkiewicz jolted an Ohlendorf offering into the evergreens beyond the 395 sign in center.

“Ohlendorf’s a good pitcher who’s had a lot of people talking,” Walsh said. “We did a good job putting pressure on him.”

Freshman Matt Brunnig (3-4) threw 6.1 innings for the win, allowing three runs. Wahlberg came in for the remainder of the game and collected his fourth save.