Post by The Cats on Mar 11, 2024 22:40:27 GMT -5
Who: Harvard
When: Friday, March 15 - Sunday March 17, 2024
Times: Fri. 4:00 pm; Sat. 2:00 pm (updated); Sun. 11:00 am
Where: Childress Field, Cullowhee, NC
TV/video: ESPN+
-announcer: Daniel Hooker (PxP)
Live Stats: WCU Live Stats
Conference: Ivy League
Nickname: Crimson
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Colors: Crimson, white, and black
Students: 21,613
Last season's record: 20-24 overall, 9-5 home, 9-15 away, 2-4 neutral, 15-6 conference
This season: 2-7 overall, 0-0 home, 1-5 away, 1-2 neutral, 0-0 conference
Head Coach: Bill Decker was introduced as the Joseph J. O'Donnell ’67 Head Coach for Harvard Baseball on September 26, 2012. He will enter his 12th season at the helm of the Crimson during the 2023-24 academic year following a 22-year tenure at Trinity in which he won a national championship in 2008 and earned induction into the Trinity Athletics Hall of Fame in 2023.
Series History: This will be the first meeting between the two teams.
Harvard will play in Johnson City on Wednesday, prior to the series in Cullowhee. Harvard University baseball was selected to finish third in the 2024 Ivy League Baseball Preseason Media Poll. Harvard returned key hitters to its lineup from the 2023 season, including junior George Cooper (.333 average, 13 doubles), senior Jake Berger (.292 average, 32 RBIs), senior Ben Rounds (.290 average, 33 RBIs), and senior Peter Messervy (.280 average, 16 doubles).
On the mound, Harvard brings back junior right-hander Sean Matson – the Most Outstanding Relief Pitcher award winner in the Cape Cod Baseball League in 2023 – and sophomore right-hander Callan Fang – the 2023 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
In 2023, the Crimson gained a berth in the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, securing the No. 2 seed behind a 15-6 Ivy League record, marking Harvard's most Ivy League wins since 2005. The Crimson captured six of its seven Ivy League series during the regular season.
As a team, Harvard leads the Ivy League in opponent batting average (.265) and ranks second in strikeouts (74) and fielding percentage (.962). In the NCAA, Harvard sits 68th in double plays per game (0.80).
Harvard plays its first 17 games of the season on the road. The Crimson makes four trips to the South, facing Troy (Feb. 23-25), The Citadel (Mar. 1-3), Penn State in Cary, North Carolina (Mar. 8-10), ETSU (Mar. 13), and Western Carolina (Mar. 15-17) before returning to the Northeast.
Harvard was selected to finish third in the 2024 Ivy League Baseball Preseason Media Poll. The Crimson totaled 97 points to land in the top half of the eight-team poll. Penn took the top spot with 128 points and 16 first-place votes. Columbia (101 points) and Princeton (87 points) claimed the second and fourth spots respectively. Yale (66 points), Cornell (37), Brown (35), and Dartmouth (25) rounded out the fifth through eighth spots in the poll.
