FULLERTON, Calif.—The afternoon was too pleasant, too breezy, to host the finality of defeat.

And yet in the 16-hour interim that spanned last night’s NCAA Regional blowout by Cal State Fullerton and today’s elimination showdown with Big 12 foe Missouri, the Harvard baseball team never found a way to stop the bleeding.

The Crimson (29-17) did find a way to score—but the Tigers (40-22) shut the door on the 2005 Harvard season with 20 hits in a commanding 14-6 win.

“It’s going to be tough to swallow,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “Nobody came down here with the idea that we just wanted to be in the tournament. We wanted to make a few upsets, get a couple of ‘Ws’ under our belt, and see what happened after that.”

Missouri exploited a vulnerable Harvard defense early, and from inning one to the game’s conclusion, battered Crimson pitchers behind a hail of hits and runs.

A total of 11 innings separated Harvard pitching’s last scoreless frame in Game 1—the second inning of its loss to Fullerton—and Missouri’s scoreless fifth, the Tigers’ first failure to score today.

First baseman Derek Chambers did most of the damage for Missouri, finishing the day four-for-five with three RBI. Six hitters in a deep Tigers lineup had multi-hit days.

“Even watching them take batting practice,” Harvard captain Schuyler Mann said, “I wasn’t expecting too much from them. But they did a great job of hitting good pitches, pitches down and away, and also hitting mistakes.”

Walsh maintained that Missouri’s real strength was a supremely balanced lineup.

“I looked and saw they had a 40-man squad,” Walsh said. “I’ve got 5 recruits this year. When you see these teams with the big squads that can run six to seven lefthanders out there and six to seven right-handers—I mean, we would’ve elected to have done that against [Fullerton slider specialist Wes Roemer] last night.”

Frank Herrmann (5-2) took the loss, allowing 10 hits, three walks and nine earned runs in just two and two-thirds innings. Herrmann failed to escape trouble early, and frequently fell behind in counts.

“He threw a lot of pitches early in the ballgame and that’s not like him,” Walsh said.

Early on, Herrmann received little help from his defense.

Tigers second baseman Trevor Helms led off the game with an infield ground-ball single into the glove of diving Crimson shortstop Morgan Brown—a solid play, followed by plenty of trouble.

Derek Chambers, the next batter, grounded a single through the left side of the infield. On the ensuing throw from left field, Crimson senior Ian Wallace airmailed the cutoff for a two-base error, scoring Helms.