Sophomore Matt Brunnig, shown here during a preseason scrimmage, tossed eight innings of three-hit baseball in Harvard's 3-1 win over Michigan on Saturday.
The wins were a little sweeter for Lance Salsgiver.
In a weekend in which the Harvard baseball team split four games on a swing through the Louisiana Bayou,the sophomore outfielder from Davison, Mich. took a little extra joy in sweeping a pair from his home state Wolverines.
“I probably knew about 10 guys on the team,” Salsgiver said. “It certainly [made it a lot more satisfying].”
Behind stellar pitching from senior Trey Hendricks and sophomore Matt Brunnig and timely hitting, the Crimson (4-4) topped the Big Ten team once each on Saturday and Sunday, but dropped a set of slugfests to host Louisiana-Lafayette.
“I think we had a pretty good weekend,” Salsgiver said. “We ran into a pretty good hitting team there, against Louisiana-Lafayette, and our pitching wasn’t as good as it could have been, but I think that we’re making progress.
ULL 23, HARVARD 9
The Ragin’ Cajuns were swinging the bats as if they were from Baton Rouge, not Lafayette, yesterday, as ULL pounded out 22 hits off of six Harvard pitchers in a display of offensive power.
Harvard starting pitcher Mike Morgalis (0-2) took the loss, allowing eight earned runs in three innings.
Trailing 6-1 through three innings, the Crimson rallied back to tie the score in the top of the fourth. With two outs and Hendricks on third, sophomore Frank Herrmann blasted a two-run homer to pull the score to 6-3. Freshman left fielder David Bach then singled, stole second and scored on a base hit by sophomore shortstop Morgan Brown. Senior center fielder Bryan Hale then drove in Brown with Harvard’s second homerun of the inning to tie the game at 6-6.
But the Ragin’ Cajuns answered right back with six runs in the bottom of the inning, and the Crimson never threatened again.
Hendricks and Hale finished 2-for-4 and 2-for-5, respectively, while sophomore second baseman Zak Farkes added three hits for Harvard.
First baseman Phillip Hawke went 2-for-5 with five RBI for ULL, finishing the weekend with 11 RBI in two-games against the Crimson.
HARVARD 5, MICHIGAN 3
The day after picking up his first career save against the Wolverines, Hendricks once again nailed down a Harvard victory.
Hendricks (1-1) tossed a 10-hit, complete game and went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI-double to lead the Crimson past Michigan (5-9) for the second time in as many days.
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