If you don't have tickets to Saturday's Spring Weekend concert (or even if you do), consider heading down to Brown's baseball diamond to catch the first doubleheader of what should be the best series of the Ivy League baseball season.
Before the season, Collegiate Baseball predicted that Harvard and Brown would finish first and second, respectively, in the Red Rolfe Division. The prediction has been good so far: The Bears (12-15 overall) and the Crimson (12-12) will enter the four-game series with identical 7-3 league records, leading Yale by three games.
Players on the Brown team said they have looked forward to this series all year. It should be an exciting one, matching the league's best offense versus its best pitching staff.
Before the Ivy season started, Head Coach Marek Drabinski said a key for the Bears would be playing "National League-style baseball," meaning the team would have to bunt, steal bases and hit-and-run successfully. But entering the weekend, Brown looks more like an American League team, leading the league in team batting (.298), runs per game (6.7) and homers per game (.81). The Bear's third, fourth and fifth hitters - Devin Thomas '07, Jeff Dietz '08 and Matt Nuzzo '09 - are especially dangerous, batting .331 with 12 homers between them, and tri-captain Bryan Tews '07 and Ryan Murphy '08, fourth in the league in batting, have been hot lately.
But the Crimson will try to tame the Brown offense with what is by far the best pitching staff in the league. Harvard pitchers have a 3.99 ERA, lower than the closest team by 1.43 points. Last week they held Yale, which entered the game leading the Ivy League in most offensive categories, to just one run. They are led by junior ace Shawn Haviland, last year's Ivy League pitcher of the year, who struggled earlier in the year but has been much better recently in his last two starts. The other starters for the weekend are expected to be junior Brad Unger (1.98 ERA, second in the league) and freshmen Eric Eadington (2.78 ERA) and Max Perlman (3.56 ERA).
The Bears will likely counter with Brown ace Dietz and tri-captain James Cramphin '07, who have been spectacular in their league starts, on Saturday, while Will Weidig '10 and Alex Silverman '08 are expected to take the mound Sunday.
The Harvard offense has struggled to produce runs this season, hitting only seven home runs while batting .270 as a team. The Crimson is led at the plate by junior Tom Stack-Babich, who is hitting .317 for the season.
Harvard has traditionally been a powerhouse in the league, with either Harvard or Princeton winning the championship for the past 11 championships. But both teams have faltered this year, with Harvard dropping three games against teams in the much-improved Lou Gehrig Division, while Princeton is last in the Gehrig Division.
Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m., and Sunday's games start at 1 p.m.
Notes: Before Saturday's games, Brown will hold a ceremony to rename Aldrich Field to Murray Stadium. The full name of the stadium will be Edward B. Aldrich Field at Murray Stadium. ... The Bears fell to the University of Connecticut yesterday, 6-5, in Storrs, Conn. After the Bears tied the game in the top of the sixth, UConn scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI double. ... Brown announced make-up games on Tuesday. The Bears will travel to Dartmouth on April 25 to make up a doubleheader postponed for rain. They will travel to a neutral site in Maine to play a doubleheader against the University of Maine on May 1.
