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Harvard’s baseball team defeated UMass Amherst 13-5 in the semifinals of the 34th rendition of the Baseball Beanpot Tournament to advance to the final against Northeastern, which will be played at the historic Fenway Park on April 29th. The Crimson (3-18, 1-5 Ivy) held off a late comeback effort from the Minutemen (9-13-1, 3-6 Atlantic 10) in a strong performance fueled by Harvard’s offense.
The Crimson pitched well throughout, using situational pitches to get necessary outs in tough scenarios. The offense scored its second-most runs in a game this season as it tallied 11 hits along with eight walks. The win was the third of the season for the Crimson, who have started slow against tough competition to start the year.
Neither team put much together at the plate across the first three innings, with junior lefty Brian Dowling allowing just two hits and four walks in his third start of the season. The Crimson started with some solid play off the bat, but did not score any runs, stranding five runners across the first two innings.
The first scoring action came from Harvard in the action-packed fourth on a sacrifice fly by junior Jordan Kang, followed quickly by an RBI single from senior Matt Giberti. After senior George Cooper was hit by a pitch, junior Gio Colasante smashed a three run home run — his third of the year — to bring the Crimson’s advantage to 5-0.
Harvard scored three more runs to open the fifth, led by an RBI double from Kang and a sacrifice fly by Cooper. In the bottom of the inning, UMass scored one run after four consecutive walks by the Crimson’s pitching staff to cut the lead to 8-1 after five.
The next scoring action came in the eighth, when Cooper scored a run off an error, one of four from the Minutemen in the game.
UMass gave Harvard its biggest scare of the day when they scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth off Cole Clearly, a right-handed senior for the Crimson.
Going into the top of the ninth with a 9-5 advantage, Harvard scored quickly on a two-run double from Cooper, who ended the day with three RBI and three runs scored. After an RBI single by freshman Liam Wilson and a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by freshman Gavin Smith, the Crimson held a 13-5 lead which proved to be insurmountable by the Minutemen.
Harvard’s win was its first at Earl Lorden Field since May 3, 2000, when the team narrowly defeated UMass by a score of 9-8. After today, the Crimson holds a 35-21 advantage in the all-time series versus the Minutemen — a series that dates all the way back to 1914 when the teams first played in Cambridge.
Later this month, Harvard will play in its 14th Beanpot Tournament final on Apr. 29th against the Northeastern Huskies, who defeated Boston College 3-0 in the other semifinal earlier in the day. If they secure their first Beanpot championship since 2018, it will mark the sixth overall for the Crimson.
Harvard will continue in Ivy League play on Saturday with a doubleheader against Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. Harvard enters the series hoping to pick up its first Ivy League series win since playing three games against the Big Green last April.
