BOSTON—Once they’ve finished their final exams, many Harvard seniors find themselves in uncharted territory.

School is over. Commencement has yet to begin. Events with names like “Champagne Brunch” and “Booze Cruise” creep up. And after four years of succeeding on grit and grind, Harvard’s stately elders learn, for once, how to do nothing useful at all.

Not so for Harvard seniors Mike Morgalis and Trey Hendricks. Morgalis, the senior hurler from Cincinnati, and Hendricks, the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, spent the week toiling towards a much nobler goal—working injured Boston Red Sox superstar Nomar Garciaparra’s batting eye back to full strength.

Beginning last Saturday and continuing through today, Morgalis and Hendricks faced off against the all-star shortstop at Fenway Park with several short, simulated pitching stints.

Morgalis threw live batting practice to Garciaparra on Saturday and Tuesday, and will pitch again tomorrow. Hendricks threw on Sunday, Wednesday, and throws again today.

Both soon-to-be-graduates agreed there was nowhere they would rather be.

“It’s definitely fun,” Hendricks said after a half hour of work on Wednesday. “I’m not doing much this week anyway.”

“It’s unbelievable,” Morgalis agreed.

Hendricks heard about the job from Red Sox scout Ray Fagnant, who needed a college pitcher—with no ties to the organization—to “throw Nomar some strikes,” according to Hendricks. It is standard procedure for Major Leaguers rehabbing injuries to face live pitching on the road to recovery.

Garciaparra has been out since the first week of Spring Training with tendonitis in his right Achilles. He projects to begin a rehab stint in AAA Pawtucket next week.

“[Hendricks] has been a lot of help,” Garciaparra said. “Both of those guys, Trey and Mike, have been unbelievable. I can’t thank them enough.”

Several times Wednesday, it appeared that Garciaparra was not yet back to full strength. The shortstop did not drive the ball off Hendricks with regularity, though it was his first work with random pitch recognition during the week. During the first three rounds—on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday—Morgalis and Hendricks told Garciaparra which pitch was going where.

“Today,” Morgalis said of Hendricks’ work, “it was more like Trey was pitching at-bats.”

Morgalis admitted he was impressed with the shortstop’s performance. “[Nomar] looks ready to me,” he said. “He hadn’t done this in so long, in about three months. And I don’t think in four days he swung through one ball.”

It wasn’t all work for Morgalis and Hendricks during the week. Both players, especially Morgalis, had a chance to jaw with the easy-going Garciaparra during pitching stints.