For Harvard, the only award currently worth considering is the Ivy Championship Series trophy.
Nevertheless, the Crimson will have a few more feathers in its already intimidating cap when it faces Cornell in the rain-postponed ICS at noon today.
Harvard received 11 separate end-of-the-year awards, easily making it the most decorated squad in the Ancient Eight. Six players were designated first-team or second-team All-Ivy, four were given honorable mention, and freshman Steffan Wilson was honored as Rookie of the Year.
Brown’s Matt Kutler—a career Crimson-killer who went 9-for-11 over a particular three-game stretch against Harvard this season—was named Player of the Year. Yale’s Josh Sowers was given Pitcher of the Year honors.
Wilson, who joins Zak Farkes as Harvard’s second Rookie of the Year in three seasons, led the Crimson in batting average (.362) and on-base percentage (.439), and paced the team in runs (34), hits (50), and walks (18). The frosh started nearly every day at third base and pulled double-duty as the team’s closer as well, notching a school-record five saves and a miniscule 1.93 ERA. He tied opposing batters down to just a .109 batting average.
“It feels good now, especially going with these games left to play, to get recognized,” captain Schuyler Mann said. “It builds guys’ confidence—especially younger guys who haven’t gotten recognized like Steffan. You don’t want people to think we were given these. We earned them.”
Wilson’s success on the hill and at the plate also earned him two more honors. He was unanimously voted first-team All-Ivy at third and was named to the second team as a reliever.
“He’s been real important to us all year,” junior pitcher Frank Herrmann said. “You forget a lot of the time that he’s a freshman. Some guys take it slow, and ease into it. But he and a bunch of other guys this year, too, have assimilated well. I don’t know where we’d be without them.”
On the first team, Wilson is joined by two very familiar faces. Mann repeated as the league’s best catcher for the second straight year, while Farkes did the same at the utility slot.
Mann started 36 games, hitting .292 and slugging eight home runs—second on the team behind junior Josh Klimkiewicz—while leading the squad with 37 RBI. His 26 career four-baggers are the second-most in Harvard history, following Farkes’ 27.
Farkes, for his part, overcame early-season struggles due to a shoulder injury to hit .429 in Ivy League play and .357 on the year, second on the Crimson. The junior didn’t quite match his record-setting 14 home runs from a year ago, but finished the season absolutely on fire, hitting .576 with four bombs and 15 RBI over the team’s final nine conference games.
Farkes carries a 10-game hitting streak into the ICS today.
“It’s awesome to have him swinging a hot bat,” Mann said. “It’s something we were definitely counting on. Having him get on fire down the stretch at the most important time is huge. He’s the guy you want up there with runners on base.”
Junior shortstop Morgan Brown and junior right-fielder Lance Salsgiver both made the second team. Brown—the team’s everyday shortstop and infield anchor—had missed five straight games due to a serious virus before returning to play last Tuesday against Northeastern. The rocket-armed, fleet-footed Salsgiver—who, notably, was clocked by scouts at 90 mph in relief against Dartmouth last weekend—led the team with 12 stolen bases in 14 attempts, hitting .298.
Harvard’s cadre of honorable mentions, meanwhile, is three-fourths composed of the three pitchers in its short starting rotation. Freshman phenom Shawn Haviland (6-1, 3.18), Herrmann (4-1, 3.40), and senior Mike Morgalis (5-0, 3.52) captained a pitching staff with the second-best ERA in the Ivy League, compiling just two losses among them.
