Walsh revised his statement.
“I want to go to a baseball town,” he said. “A place where there are going to be some fans. People are going to be all over us. The atmosphere. Many of the places have that. Not all.”
“But we’ve got to earn that,” he added. “We’ve got to hang in there a few games to knock some people off to play in front of big crowds.”
Of the 16 announced NCAA host sites, 11 are located in the southeastern U.S. and Texas. Baseball America projects a Harvard showdown in Fullerton, Cal., against the No. 2-seeded Cal State-Fullerton Titans.
The Titans are the No. 1 team in the nation according to Baseball America’s most recent Top 25 poll.
“We’re not going out there just to visit,” Walsh maintained. “I want to go out there, play our game, leave it on the table, come win or come lose, and that’s okay. I just want to make sure that we played our best baseball.”
That will be more likely if the Crimson gets together its stellar starting pitching staff as quickly as possible. Junior ace Frank Herrmann has been battling discomfort and freshman standout Shawn Haviland recently entered the University infirmary with a severe case of strep throat.
Walsh remained confident that given the healthy return of the two starters—along with senior starter Mike Morgalis—the team will be capable of holding its own against a powerhouse program.
“A ground ball off a kid from Texas bat or a CSF bat is going to be the same thing off the bat of somebody from Cornell,” Walsh said. “We’ve just got to make those plays.”
NCAA Tournament play begins Friday and continues through the weekend.
NEW ENGLAND’S FINEST
After the first round of regional tournament play, three Harvard players will partake in New England’s most prestigious collegiate baseball All-Star exhibition at Fenway Park next Sunday, June 5.
Crimson captain Schuyler Mann, who was named to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association’s First Team, will man the backstop for New England’s Division I All-Stars.
Junior Zak Farkes and freshman Steffan Wilson were named to the second team.
The squad, which includes Quinnipiac’s Bryan Sabatella, will play a team of Division II-III All-Stars after the Red Sox conclude their series against the Anaheim Angels.
—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.