In a crosstown meeting with Boston College, the Harvard baseball team fell behind early and, despite mounting a rally, could never catch up.

The Crimson lost, 8-6, to the Eagles on a windy Wednesday afternoon in Chestnut Hill. All of BC’s offense came in three consecutive innings, including a five-run bottom of the third, which propelled them to a six-run lead.

Harvard (4-19) held the Eagles (5-23) scoreless for the rest of the game and posted the next four tallies, one of which came on a home run from sophomore outfielder Brandon Kregel. But the late offense would not be enough to overcome the early deficit.

“In the middle innings we looked at the scoreboard and were like, ‘There’s no reason we can’t come back,’” senior infielder Rob Wineski said. “We got some guys on base, and all of a sudden it’s 8-6, and we had a shot…. At the end of the day we just didn’t capitalize at the very end, but we felt like we could come back the entire time.”

The Crimson struggled to get out of the gates, as the Eagles scored seven runs off Harvard junior starter Peter Kaplan. But once the Harvard pitchers settled down, the offense followed in turn, ultimately posting eight hits, only one fewer than the BC total.

The six runs tied the most the Crimson has scored all year.

It looked as if the Eagles would put a crooked number on the board early, as an error, a walk, and a single loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first.

But Kaplan immediately buckled down, striking out the next two BC hitters, and ended the threat by forcing a fly-out to right field.

Harvard appeared to have the momentum in the top of the next frame when it rallied to put men on second and third with one out.

But this time, the Eagles clamped down on defense, as starter Matt Alvarez forced the next two Crimson batters to pop out in the infield.

After BC struck first in the bottom of the second with a pair of runs, Harvard bounced back in the next half inning to tie the game up. Following a double from junior outfielder Jeff Hajdin and a walk from sophomore infielder Mike Martin, two wild pitches brought in one run, and a sacrifice fly from Kregel plated Martin.

But the score would not remain even for long, as BC responded with force in the home half of the third, putting up five runs to seize control of the game.

All nine Eagles hitters went to bat in the inning, and the scoring started with a triple from junior Jimmy Dowdell that scored two. After a double, a walk, and an out, junior John Hennessy smacked another double with two outs that brought in the final two tallies of the inning.

It looked as if the Eagles might keep pouring it on in the fourth, but senior pitcher Jordan Haviland forced a 4-6-3 double play with the bases loaded to limit the damage to one.

With the score 8-2 in favor of the Eagles, Harvard attempted to chip away at the lead over the course of the next two innings.