Senior utilityman Carlton Bailey, shown here in previous action, leads the Crimson with a .323 batting average so far this season. Harvard begins its Ivy League season this Saturday with a road doubleheader against Princeton.

Although the Harvard baseball team suffered a loss in its first game of the day, the elements ensured that the winner of the second matchup would not be revealed just yet.

Playing against Penn in a doubleheader on Sunday, the Crimson offense couldn’t get started in a 4-1 loss in the first contest. With the score tied at three in the second game of the double header, the umpires were forced to suspend play when the rain picked up in the eighth inning. The game will be resumed Monday at noon.

“Tomorrow, we’re in a huge position because we only have two innings of baseball to play,” sophomore outfielder Brandon Kregel said. “So I think what we need to do is come out extremely focused and fired up and ready to give 100 percent right away. We can’t waste any time with anything…. If we can manage to score in the two innings tomorrow, we should come out pretty successful.”

HARVARD 3, PENN 3 – SUSPENDED IN THE TOP OF THE EIGHTH

In its second game of the day, the Crimson and the Quakers each posted three-run innings before rain delayed the game after seven frames.

Harvard got off to a fast start in the top of the first inning when a single and two walks loaded the bases with no outs. Another single from sophomore clean-up batter Nick Saathoff brought in the first run of the game.

In the very next at-bat, sophomore infielder Tanner Anderson drove in two more runs with a base hit up the middle.

But those three tallies were all the scoring the Harvard offense would manage. After allowing a sacrifice bunt, Penn starter Pat Bet settled down and forced a foul out and a strikeout to end the threat.

Another squandered scoring opportunity came in the fourth. Although the Crimson loaded the bases with one out, Bet forced sophomore infielder Mike Martin to ground into a double play up the middle.

Freshman pitcher Sean Poppen (1-1), coming off a three-hit complete game in his last outing, went seven innings for Harvard and allowed three runs. Although Poppen surrendered ten hits, he managed, for the most part, to spread them out and keep himself out of trouble.

The exception came in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman Gary Tesch led off with a triple down the right field line for the Quakers, and the very next batter singled him home.

After another single and a sacrifice bunt, senior Spencer Branigan tied the game with a double to left that drove in two more, the last of the runs to be had for either side on Sunday.

PENN 4, HARVARD 1

Harvard outhit Penn in the first game of the weekend, but the Crimson failed to produce scores and fell, 4-1.

The Crimson did not score until its last inning at the plate in the top of the seventh, when the first two batters reached base and a single from junior outfielder Jeff Hajdin cut the deficit to three.