“Pitching’s key,” Herrmann said. “No one thought our pitching would be our strong suit coming into this year, but pitching’s carried us, especially early on in the Ivy season.”
The Crimson’s final honoree, however, might be its most controversial. Klimkiewicz, Harvard’s junior first baseman, earned only an honorable mention despite leading the team in home runs (8), slugging percentage (.613) and total bases (84) while tallying 34 RBI—second only to Mann. He hit .314 and recorded a .404 OBP in a long-awaited, fully healthy comeback year.
He was overlooked in favor of Yale’s Marc Sawyer and Columbia’s Tighe Holden.
“I definitely think Josh was passed over,” Mann said. “He had tough competition at first base, but he put up huge numbers. He’s been in the three or four hole all season, with pitchers gave him the absolute best they’ve got. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t further recognized.”
THE BIG RED TWO
But for the Crimson now, however, the focus isn’t on these awards. It’s on swiping the first two games of the ICS.
The Big Red (17-22, 11-9 Ivy) comes to O’Donnell Field today for the first two games of the best-of-three ICS—hosted by Harvard (24-15, 15-5)—which will crown an Ivy League champion and the recipient of an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The series, originally scheduled for Saturday and yesterday, will at last take place today at noon and 3 p.m., and tomorrow at 1 p.m., if necessary. Each game will be nine innings.
For the Crimson, the delay looks to be a blessing in disguise. After playing in two postponed weekend series in a row—Harvard split against Dartmouth this past Monday and faced Brown the Monday and Tuesday before that—pitching will finally be working on normal rest again.
“It definitely helps us,” Herrmann said. “We had some tired arms, and I know that with Brown and Dartmouth, for me, not being able to get my mind set exactly and having everything pushed back was tough. The league made a good decision. There was no need to rush it.”
The last time the Crimson played in the ICS was in 2003 when it fell to Princeton. Harvard last won the ICS in 2002. Cornell has yet to make the series since the league split into two divisions in 1993.
The Big Red, conspicuously, was also no-hit in its penultimate game of its regular season, garnering no hits in seven innings for a 2-0 loss in the first game of a doubleheader against LeMoyne. It then garnered only four hits in the second game, a 6-1 loss.
Make no mistake, though. Cornell was arguably Harvard’s toughest opponent all year, losing slim 3-1 and 2-1 games to the Crimson across the river in early April.
“We all expected Princeton to be the team facing us,” Mann said. “But we want to make sure not to take anything for granted. [Cornell] played us closely, had good pitching, and finished with best defense in the Ivies.”
“I don’t take anything from that game [against LeMoyne],” Herrmann added. “We got smoked by Northeastern, a team we beat in the Beanpot. Cornell just came off an emotional series against Princeton. Maybe they were looking ahead towards us, like we were towards them.”
—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.