When Harvard faces off against rival Yale, you can expect a battle down to the wire. And that’s just what happened on Saturday at O’Donnell Field.

In an afternoon doubleheader, the Crimson baseball team (8-24, 5-7 Ivy) split with the Bulldogs (8-21, 5-7), taking the first game by a score of 2-1 but dropping the final contest, 7-3, in a game that came down to the final inning.

“We played well enough to win, and it came down to the very last inning,” freshman pitcher Sean Poppen said. “Some things didn’t go our way, and the baseball gods kind of frowned upon us in the last inning. Although over the course of the game, we had a lot of opportunities to score. We could’ve pulled away, and we didn’t.”

YALE 7, HARVARD 3

The Crimson found itself up, 3-1, entering the top of the ninth. But the wheels fell off for Harvard just three outs away from its second win of the day.

Yale scored six runs in its last time at the plate to take a 7-3 decision and snatch a win from the Crimson.

Poppen nearly pitched his second complete game and was one out away from securing a victory. The rookie allowed only three earned runs in 8 2/3 innings while striking out seven batters.

Yale loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the ninth. When Poppen induced a double play up the middle that scored one run to make it a 3-2 game, it looked as if the Crimson would escape with the win.

But sophomore David Toups came through for the Bulldogs with a two-out single to left field that brought in the tying run.

Yale went on to score four more runs in the inning, and the Crimson went down in order to seal the loss.

Harvard began the scoring in the bottom of the second when a single from co-captain first baseman Rob Wineski plated junior outfielder Carlton Bailey. But Yale answered in the next half-inning to tie the score at one.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Crimson posted its only multi-run inning of the game when sophomore second baseman Tanner Anderson and classmate Nick Saathoff hit back-to-back RBI doubles to give Harvard a 3-1 lead.

Anderson and Wineski led the team with two hits apiece in the game. Anderson totaled four knocks in the two contests.

HARVARD 2, YALE 1

In its first game of Red Rolfe division play, the Crimson wound up in front after a hard-fought contest.

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.