In baseball, one bad inning is often enough to derail your chances in a game. This is all too clear for Harvard, which was 0-4 in the first contests of its weeklong road trip.

In all four games, one inning made all of the difference.

“We seem to play a good seven or eight innings during our game, but we always seem to have that one inning where we run into some troubles,” Crimson coach Joe Walsh said.

One game featured a walk-off single in extra innings. In the others, Harvard allowed at least four runs—and as many as seven—in a single frame, and each time the crooked number was the clear difference.

“We had some tough losses, but we’re going to build upon them.  Right now, we’ve been hitting the ball well, scoring some runs, but haven’t really been finishing games,” said junior captain and catcher Tyler Albright.

With the losses, the team moves to 3-7 for the season going into its weekend series against Charlotte.

UNC GREENSBORO 12, HARVARD 7

For seven and a half innings, the second game against UNC Greensboro was a competitive, back-and-forth contest.

In the top of the seventh, the Crimson quickly scored two runs on an Albright double to tie the game, but could not score again in the inning despite a number of bases-loaded opportunities.

The Spartans capitalized on those same chances in the home half, and Harvard surrendered its second grand slam of the road trip.

“[It] should’ve been a pretty close game, 8-8 going into the late innings, [but] next thing you know it’s 12-6,” Walsh said.

Sophomore Jonah Klees, who pitched a perfect seventh inning in relief before allowing all six runs in the eighth, was charged with the loss—his first decision of the season.

Albright, batting in the seventh spot, led the Crimson offensively with three RBI on the evening. Sophomore Marcus Way hit his first career home run in the ninth inning.

UNC GREENSBORO 4, HARVARD 3 (10 innings)

After two blowouts to start Harvard’s road trip, the Crimson kept its first of two games against UNC Greensboro close, but still lost on a 10th inning RBI single for its third loss in as many games.

Harvard held a 3-1 lead after the third, but the Spartans tied the score at three in the bottom of the fifth. The score remained knotted there until the decisive tenth inning, when the Crimson could not stop Greensboro after a one-out double.

A ground ball single to Brent Suter gave the sophomore right fielder a chance for a play at the plate. Despite an accurate throw home, Albright—playing with a fractured thumb—could not hold on, dropping the ball and allowing Lloyd Enzor to score the winning run.

Both teams left 11 runners on base in the game, failing to capitalize on other scoring chances in the relatively low-scoring game. Harvard left runners on base in all but three innings, one of which was its one-two-three tenth.

“They had given us a couple of walks in an inning, and we just haven’t been getting teams that have been giving us any freebies,” Walsh said. “We were getting guys on but not delivering that key two-out hit.”

WINTHROP 12, HARVARD 5

Despite jumping out to a first inning 3-0 lead, the Crimson could not hold on against Winthrop, and the game quickly moved out of reach for Harvard in the seven-run loss.

Though the Crimson held a 5-3 lead after the top of the fifth, the Eagles put seven on the board in the home half of the inning, a lead which Winthrop maintained for the rest of the game. The Eagles batted around in the inning, which was fueled further by two Harvard errors.

Junior starter Zach Hofeld, who lasted four plus innings and allowed eight runs—seven earned—picked up the loss, his first decision of the year.

“We got behind on hitters, and they…took advantage of that,” Walsh said. “Other than that one bad inning, we played a pretty competitive game against them.”

Still, Harvard was not as contained as in its first game of the roadtrip. Crimson shortstop Sean O’Hara reached base in every plate appearance, going 2-for-2 with a run, an RBI, and two walks.

GARDNER-WEBB 9, HARVARD 0

Gardner-Webb pitcher Michael Hanzlik threw a one-hitter, and after the Crimson gave up four runs in the first two innings, the game was never close in Harvard’s first loss of the week.

The Crimson’s only hit was a second inning single from designated hitter Way, but the hit was erased by a 6-4-3 double play of the bat of the next hitter, senior Dan Zailskas.

Hanzlik was perfect from the second inning until the ninth, when he hit freshman pinch hitter Kyle Larrow with a pitch.

“He really just threw strikes,” Albright said. “I think he had a lot of us off-balance by throwing first-pitch curveballs or first-pitch fastballs and just kept us guessing the entire game…That guy was just on that day.”

The Crimson’s pitching could not match Hanzlik’s stellar performance, and the staff never seemed to find its rhythm. Rookie starting pitcher Andrew Ferreira gave up three runs, all earned, on four walks and two hits, and lasted only 1.1 innings.

The first relief pitcher of the afternoon, Matt Doyle, did not fare any better, giving up five runs in 3.2 innings of work. Runnin’ Bulldogs shortstop Aaron Miller delivered most of that damage, hitting a sixth-inning grand slam to move the game to 8-0. Miller led Gardner-Webb with six RBI on the day.