Indeed, the home team played like the group with something to play for in this contest. Although the Crimson outhit Dartmouth, nine to six, the Big Green took advantage of three Harvard errors to score a run in each of the second through fifth innings for the 4-2 victory.

“We didn’t play defense very well, and there were opportunities with runners in scoring position that we didn’t execute,” Kregel said. “We didn’t handle the ball well and hit when we needed to.”

The Crimson took an early 1-0 lead when junior catcher Ethan Ferreira, junior left fielder Jack Colton, and sophomore third baseman Mitch Klug started the top of the second inning with three straight hits.

But defensive miscues led to unearned runs scored by Dartmouth in the bottom halves of the second, third, and fifth innings to go along with another run in the fourth. And though Harvard had at least one hit in every inning but the third, the group could only muster two runs of support for sophomore starter Sean Poppen.

The 6’3” right-hander, who leads the team with 57.1 innings pitched for the season, threw five innings of five-hit ball and only allowed one earned run in the loss.

“In baseball, it’s a crazy thing how you can have that many hits and only scratch across two runs,” Bailey said. “It all comes down to the timely hits with runners on base and in scoring position. We tended to…get one guy on and then not advance him any further.”

Junior righty Matt Timoney threw a scoreless inning in relief, and senior designated hitter Carlton Bailey, junior center fielder Mike Martin, and Klug had two hits apiece in the contest.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.