In baseball, a hitter's wind can be a pitcher's worst enemy.

Yesterday, it drove UMass Loonie.

The Harvard baseball team exploded for seven runs in the first inning off Minuteman starter David Loonie en route to a 21-11 massacre of UMass at O'Donnell Field yesterday.

With winds gusting at 25 m.p.h., four Harvard hitters went deep five times in yesterday's game. The Minutemen slugged four homers of their own-good for eight of their 11 runs-but the Crimson (17-21, 10-7 Ivy) put the game out of reach early.

In Harvard's seven-run first inning, junior second baseman baseman Faiz Shakir hit a three-run double and shortstop Mark Mager stroked a two-run single to lead the Crimson offense.

After junior third baseman Nick Carter homered and freshman DH Trey Hendricks doubled to start off the next inning, Loonie was finally given the hook, charged with nine runs in just the one inning of work.

But that wasn't all, folks.

Harvard scored four more runs in the bottom of the second off a grand slam by senior left fielder Joe Llanes to open up a 12-1 lead.