From that game until April 17, the Crimson allowed 2.43 runs per game against Ivy opponents, winning seven straight and taking a two-game lead in the Red Rolfe division. Morgalis and Hendricks earned victories in four of those seven—including Hendricks’ two-hitter against projected first-round draft pick B.J. Szymanski and Princeton, 4-1, which completed a two-game sweep of the Tigers. Szymanski, likely to be the second position player taken in the June amateur draft to Florida State’s Stephen Drew, went 0-for-4.
Harvard’s good fortune soon ran dry.
On April 17-18, the Crimson lost three straight at Yale, losing possession of the Red Rolfe lead to Dartmouth—a lead it wouldn’t take back. After salvaging the series finale, Harvard was one game behind Dartmouth with the Beanpot in Brockton, Mass. coming up and two Ivy weekends to go.
The Crimson lost to Boston College in the first game of the non-conference Beanpot, but won against UMass the next day with a dramatic walk-off home run by Farkes.
THE 11th HOUR
Seemingly reenergized, the Crimson nonetheless lost the first of four against Brown, 9-6, on April 24 and appeared headed towards a Game 2 defeat to the Bears in the afternoon.
Trailing 9-3 heading into the bottom of the eigth inning, Harvard needed a miracle to keep its season alive, already down two games in the standings to Dartmouth, which had swept Yale earlier.
It found one.
The Crimson scored six in the eighth, then won the game in the bottom of the ninth on a walk-off ground-rule double by Hendricks. And after winning Game 3 by a score of 5-2 early on Sunday, they did it again in their last at-bat in Game 4, winning 9-8—this time on a game-winning Ian Wallace suicide squeeze.
“I’ll tell you what,” Walsh said, “every time we play Brown, it is unbelievable.”
Harvard faced a two-game deficit in the standings entering the next weekend’s four-game, home-and-home series against Dartmouth. Harvard needed to sweep—or at least take three of four to force a playoff.
They won the first game, 20-9, behind two Farkes home runs, but then lost a heartbreaker in Game 2, 13-10—with Harvard-killer and Big Green left fielder Scott Shirrell hitting a game-winning, three-run homer off Hendricks in relief.
Hendricks got sweet redemption in Hanover on May 2, pitching a 5-0 gem, bringing the Crimson within one game of the lead. But in the nightcap Dartmouth’s Stephen Perry pitched a complete game, holding Harvard to two runs, earning a 7-2 victory, and clinching the Red Rolfe division title for the Big Green.
—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.