In all, Fullerton scored 19 runs on 19 hits, pounding four long home runs. The team wreaked the bulk of its damage with successive outbursts in the sixth through eighth innings.

Fittingly, Harvard captain and team leader Schuyler Mann broke up Roemer’s no-hitter with a line-drive single to lead off the fifth.

Two fielder’s choices later, freshman Steffan Wilson was picked off the bag by Roemer. Only Mann, junior Zak Farkes, and freshman Taylor Meehan—who lined a single in the top of the eighth off standout reliever Adam Jorgenson— reached base safely for the Crimson through the first eight innings.

Not until a Harvard rally loaded the bases in the top of the ninth did a Crimson baserunner advance as far as second base.

In the end, it was a frustrating start to a NCAA regional originally filled with promise. Harvard players had cheered the chance to take on the defending national champions.

With the loss, the Crimson will play Missouri, losers of a 5-3 decision against Arizona in the afternoon, at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

A defeat would cut short the Crimson’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2002.

“We’ll have to bounce back tomorrow,” Walsh said. “And see if we can at least show what we’re capable of doing. We didn’t do that today.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu. For the rest of the weekend, he will issue reports live from the Fullerton Regional.