With one out and the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Harvard trailed 8-7, just a ground ball away from a double play and an all-but season-ending loss. But Mann worked Brown reliever Ethan Silverstein for a walk—and a game-tying RBI—and the Crimson won the game when Ian Wallace dropped down a perfect suicide squeeze on he next pitch.
“He’s swinging the bat real well,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “He’s patient up there at the plate. He got down 0-1 and still worked it out. You get that RBI, that’s all that matters.”
Something else matters a lot, too. Entering its season-deciding series with the Big Green, the Crimson’s cleanup hitter is hot and putting up the numbers his teammates always knew he would.
With Mann in the mix, Harvard finally has the dangerous heart of its lineup—Zak Farkes, Trey Hendricks and Mann—all hitting at the same time, heading into what could be a quartet of slugfests for the Red Rolfe crown this weekend.
It’s all coming together.
And on Sunday, when the wind stopped swirling, you could see this one coming.
—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.