“We hit the ball on the screws there with Wilson at third base,” Walsh said. “If that ball goes by, we win the ball game.”

Though the Crimson would contain the Crusaders in the top of the 13th, its luck would fare no better in its next turn at the plate. Klimkiewicz skied a fly ball to the 370 sign in left center that fell just short of the wall and into Potvin’s waiting glove, before captain Schuyler Mann sent another of O’Dea’s pitches to the gap in right center, where it hung in the air long enough for Potvin to track it down.

“Those are miserable,” Klimkiewicz said. “I hit a couple good shots. The first one I thought definitely had a chance of going out, but it just didn’t get there.”

Three batters later and with runners at first and second, Brown again got the better of O’Dea, ripping his fastball to straight-away center, but, as before, Potvin retreated and, with little time to spare, hauled in the line drive to thwart yet another of Harvard’s chances.

“I thought Morgan had a real good swing, drove the ball real hard,” Walsh said. “You get that down a little bit, it might have been in the gap. We had some good swings. I give some credit to them…What are you going to do? You just keep plugging away, hope things work out for you, line drives don’t get through, ground balls do. That’s baseball and that’s the beauty of the game.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.