Joe Walsh, however, has been looking in Morgan Brown’s direction for quite a while.

The junior All-Ivy second-teamer returned to Ivy League play after being hospitalized with a virus that caused him to miss the Red Rolfe-deciding Dartmouth series. Brown and junior Zak Farkes—playing second on Monday instead of sophomore Brendan Byrne—flashed the leather in a sturdy keystone combination, turning four critical double plays, two in each contest.

With Brown’s return, the Crimson was at last genuinely healthy for the first time this year.

“When we were voting for the [All-Ivy] awards, I told everyone, ‘Hey, that shortstop’s my MVP,’” Walsh said. “That’s what I think. You can take that .272 average and throw it out the window...There’s no doubt about it.”

“He looks like his old self, and he was the key,” Walsh added. “He gave us the moves.”

WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW

While Harvard’s pitching starred in the box score, it was its defense that shone on the field.

Besides the four twin-killings turned by some combination of Brown, Farkes, and junior first baseman Josh Klimkiewicz, the Crimson picked off runners with extreme prejudice. In doing so, Harvard never allowed the nine base-runners allowed by Herrmann in Game One to score.

Mann gunned down two would-be thieves at second—once in the fourth, and once in the fifth—and then, in the second game, caught Cornell’s Matt Miller attempting to steal home unassisted.

Wilson, Harvard’s third baseman-cum-closer, meanwhile, unveiled his pitching arm at the hot corner, picking a tricky groundball with a nifty backhand before firing it to first for the third out of the inning.

“It’s nice to win a game on pitching and defense,” Walsh summarized.

Still, the play of the day probably belongs to senior left-fielder Ian Wallace, who—besides going 4-for-7—threw a laser to Mann in the sixth inning of Game One to snipe Josh Foster at home.

“We had to make plays because they were making plays,” Mann said. “They were making every tough play, and we weren’t getting any breaks. We had to match them defensively.”

The Big Red, meanwhile, had finished the regular season with statistically the best defense in the Ivy League.