Junior pitcher Sam Dodge threw a complete seven-inning game to lead the way for Harvard.
Yale could not figure out Dodge, who allowed one unearned run and only surrendered three hits. The junior pounded the strike zone all game long, surrendering only one walk while striking out seven batters in a 104-pitch effort.
“I just came out, wanted to throw strikes early, and make them put the ball in play,” Dodge said. “I threw my fastball early, got them to take cuts, and ended up getting a lot of them out.”
The game featured effective pitching from both teams, as the Crimson registered only five hits to the Bulldogs’ three. Junior Rob Cerfolio threw six strong innings for Yale, but the two runs Harvard brought across were enough to tag him with the loss.
The Crimson seized the momentum from the outset when Dodge struck out the first three batters of the game.
Harvard went on to deal the first blow in the home half of the opening inning. After sophomore shortstop Mike Martin crushed a triple to right-center-field, freshman third baseman Mitch Klug grounded out to the shortstop to bring home the run.
Dodge continued to pitch effectively, and his team provided him with additional support in the bottom of the fourth. Anderson led off the inning with a double to right field. One batter later, Bailey smacked another double down the left field line to bring in Anderson for the Crimson’s second run of the game.
Yale scored its only run of the contest in the top of the sixth. After an error in the Harvard outfield, Bulldogs senior Cam Squires took advantage of the mistake by hitting a sacrifice fly that put his team on the board.
But Dodge buckled down and struck out the next batter to end the threat, limiting Yale to a single run. He retired the Bulldogs in order, securing the victory for the Crimson and notching his first win of the season.
“The win was huge because it really got the momentum going into game two, where we played well until the last inning,” Dodge said. It gave us a lot of momentum [Saturday], and we came into [Sunday] with a chance to win the series.”
—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu.