Harvard captain Morgan Brown will lead the Crimson’s charge for a second consecutive Ivy League championship.

Yesterday marked the first day of the 2006 Harvard baseball season. For a team that opened its first official practice last night without 2005 lynchpin Schuyler Mann ’05, as well as three early departures to Major League organizations, there was an awful lot to buzz about.

In its annual NCAA preview, “Baseball America” picked Harvard to repeat as Ivy League champions. According to the publication, which is widely regarded as the authority on college baseball, the Crimson will edge Brown, Yale, and arch-nemesis Dartmouth in the Red Rolfe division and defeat Princeton in the league Championship Series.

Harvard was not tabbed to win it all last year, but went a league-best 15-5 in league play and swept Cornell in the ILCS. It bowed out of the NCAA tournament in June with losses to Missouri and 2004 National Champion Cal State-Fullerton.

“You always kind of like being the underdog,” captain Morgan Brown said. “This is a little bit of a validation, but you still have to go out and prove you’re number one.”

Additionally, the magazine named Brown, senior first baseman Josh Klimkiewicz, sophomore third baseman Steffan Wilson, senior outfielder Lance Salsgiver, and sophomore ace Shawn Haviland to its pre-season All-Conference team.

BAITING GATORS

Harvard released its complete 2006 schedule on Monday. The team will see its first real action in the field—maybe at all, depending on whether the early spring cold keeps February practices indoors—in Gainesville, Fla. from March 10-12.

The Crimson’s first opponent: No. 2 Florida.

The Gators, who lost the 2005 national championship to Texas, will play as many as 22 games in February and March before they host the Crimson. They return a star-studded lineup that includes junior All-American Matt LaPorta, who led the NCAA with 26 home runs in 2005.

“That should be interesting,” Harvard sophomore Matt Vance said. “We’re hoping to take one if not two.”

Brown pointed out that Harvard has met with “mixed results” against nationally competitive programs in recent years.

On a 2005 road trip to Minneapolis’ Metrodome, the Crimson beat Minnesota and St. John’s but lost to Louisiana-Lafayette.

A 2004 swing through Lubbock, Tex. had Harvard sweeping Michigan but suffering two blowouts at Texas Tech.

So what does March hold?

“We’re all pretty confident,” Vance said. “We plan on [Florida] maybe not coming out as hard as they can.”

PRACTICE, MAN

Yesterday evening brought the first practice of the season, but it hasn’t taken long for several team newcomers to acclimate themselves. “Great attendance” at voluntary team pre-season workouts, according to Brown, promises to shorten the transitional period of the 2006 squad.

And there is no shortage of young talent.

“In high school,” Brown said, “you lose a couple of your best players and it takes a while to return. When you get to college, you get guys on your bench and guys coming in as freshman who just want to fill in.

“A lot of them,” he said, “are great players.”

Freshman Tom Stack-Babich, a transfer from Wake Forest, arrives as Harvard’s heralded new power source, and will complement Klimkiewicz and Wilson in the middle of the order. He was recognized as the league’s best new arrival by “Baseball America.”

Because he took a redshirt freshman year at Wake Forest, he has not played since his senior year of high school at Xaverian Brothers High School in Scituate, Mass.

“He’s anxious to get going,” Brown said. “He’s got a lot of fire in him.”

Freshmen hurlers Ryan Watson and Adam Cole have impressed from the mound in early workouts, and Coach Joe Walsh has expressed interest in using them in the regular pitching rotation.

So also has the coaching staff felt considerable turnover. Assistant coach Matt Hyde left his post in the summertime and has since taken a job as a New York Yankees area scout.

New hitting coach Tom Lo Ricco, who brings considerable experience as a head coach in Division III, and Todd Carroll, a new bullpen catcher and pitching coach, join the staff in 2006.

The team will bounce around indoor venues like Lavietes Pavilion, complete with artificial turf, until the re-flooring of the Palmer-Dixon Tennis Courts is completed.

That is, unless this year’s balmy winter weather continues.

“Coach is hoping we get outside on Friday,” Vance said. “This time last year, the field was covered in snow.”

—Staff writer Alex McPhillips can be reached at rmcphill@fas.harvard.edu.