After a long and tiring stay in Texas, the Harvard baseball team evidently saved the best for last.

The Crimson took two out of three from Houston Baptist in a series spanning from Friday to Sunday. After dropping the first contest, Harvard went on to defeat the Huskies, 4-3, and took the final game by a 6-1 margin.

The wins capped off a trip in which the Crimson played ten games in ten days.

“Pretty much, over this trip, we want to leave it with good emotion,” sophomore infielder Tanner Anderson said. “We want to come back to Ivies and use the play against these much more difficult teams to help us in the Ivies and hopefully get us a couple wins there.”

HARVARD 6, HOUSTON BAPTIST 1

In its final game of the trip Sunday afternoon, Harvard outplayed the Huskies from start to finish to nab its second straight win by a score of 6-1.

Freshman pitcher Sean Poppen came through with a huge performance on the mound for the visiting squad. Poppen provided much-needed relief to a fatigued Crimson rotation by throwing 113 pitches in a complete game effort.

Aside from a second inning in which Houston Baptist notched two hits and a run, Poppen was flawless for much of the game. The freshman went the next six innings without giving up a hit and got Harvard back in the dugout quickly with a number of one-two-three innings.

“We couldn’t ask anything more of our freshman and sophomore class,” Anderson said. “To come in without any college experience for the freshmen especially, and for them to be doing as well as they are, it definitely helps the team tremendously.”

The Crimson took advantage of sloppy defense from the Huskies, who committed seven errors in the game. After scoring one run in the fourth, sixth, and seventh innings, Harvard broke the game open in the ninth with three runs, two of which came on wild pitches.

Sophomore utility Mike Martin fueled the Crimson with a hit, two RBIs, two walks, and three runs scored. Another top offensive contributor was sophomore catcher Ethan Ferreira, who notched a game-high two hits.

HARVARD 4, HOUSTON BAPTIST 3

Harvard earned its first victory since the opening game of the season on Saturday afternoon, refusing to let a close one slip away in the late innings.

Although the Huskies showed signs of a rally in the eighth and the ninth, senior pitcher Jordan Haviland got the best of the Houston Baptist batters in clutch situations and sealed the 4-3 victory for the Crimson.

Freshman pitcher Matt Sanders earned the win for Harvard, giving up two earned runs in seven innings of work.