“He was unbelievable,” sophomore Brent Suter added. “He’s one of those hitters who, when he’s hot, you do not want to pitch to him.”

Plenty of other Harvard batters got in on the action too, with senior Dan Zailskas lining a two-run single to left field in the top of the first and Albright notching a pair of RBI singles in the second and third. All told, the Crimson had staked junior starter Max Perlman to a 13-0 lead before he even broke a sweat.

And Perlman—who continued to show recovery from elbow surgery with his longest outing of the season (63 pitches)—took full advantage. After yielding a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, the Harvard hurler promptly picked off Yale leadoff man Cam Squires and retired the next four batters he faced. Perhaps the best sign for Perlman was the junior’s ability to throw strikes consistently. Of his 63 pitches, 48 crossed the plate.

“He looks good and feels confident,” said Albright, who caught the entire doubleheader. “The first few innings he was dominant, throwing strikes on the first pitch.”

Unfortunately for Perlman, the Bulldogs began to hit those strikes in the third. Following a pair of singles, Squires bounced back from his baserunning blunder with a two-run triple and scored on a single by junior Andy Megee. Yale then posted another four runs in the fourth inning, closing the gap to six. When slugger Trygg Larsson-Danforth followed a Megee single with a two-run bomb to open the fifth, Walsh called for junior Eric Eadington to preserve the Crimson’s suddenly precarious four-run lead. But Eadington yielded four consecutive singles, finally stopping the onslaught with a double-play ball and a strikeout after the Bulldogs had pulled within 13-11.

The teams traded runs in the sixth inning, with Way scoring on a single from senior Chris Rouches and Larsson-Danforth launching a solo shot for his second home run of the game. With the game on the line, Walsh turned to sophomore Brent Suter, who bent but did not break in the bottom of the seventh. Despite yielding a pair of one-out singles, Suter induced a ground ball and forced Gant Elmore to fly out to right field, preserving the win for Harvard.

“It was the first time for me coming out of the [bullpen], so I was a little nervous out there,” Suter said. “But I was able to settle down, throw strikes, and let the defense work behind me, which they did.”

—Staff writer Max N. Brondfield can be reached at mbrondf@fas.harvard.edu.