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ANALYSIS: Baseball

Returning players will get another crack at tournament play

Finally, there is Shawn Haviland. If it weren’t for Wilson—or if the All-Ivy votes were taken after the Ivy Championship Series—Haviland may have been the league’s selection as top rookie.The baby-faced blond from Farmington, Conn. finished the year atop the league in wins (7) and opponents batting average (.217), and was third in ERA (2.85). Most encouragingly, he was best at season’s end, tossing seven innings of two-hit baseball in an ICS-clinching 4-2 win over Cornell.

Haviland and Herrmann—who finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the league in opponents batting average—will be co-aces next season.

With junior-to-be Drew Casey a virtual lock to step in for Mann—a two-time Ivy first-teamer—behind the plate, left field is the only spot in the lineup without a solidified starter.

Harvard arguably returns more than any team in the league.

Division rival Brown, which finished just a game behind the Crimson, bids adieu to the unanimous Ivy Player of the Year and Harvard nemesis Matt Kutler.Though most of its other offensive weapons return, the worst rotation in the Ivy League will still be its achilles’ heel.

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Yale—which hung around the Rolfe race through pitching and defense—will lose Ivy Pitcher of the Year Josh Sowers, the only member of its rotation to earn all-Ivy recognition.

And in the Lou Gehrig division, perennial power Princeton may lose the most of any Ivy team—its coach, Scott Bradley.

Bradley—who has led the Tigers to seven division championships in eight seasons—is rumored to be a leading candidate to fill the head coaching vacancy at Duke, though he has not confirmed his interest in the position. Even if he does return, it will be to far less talent than Princeton has boasted in recent years.

All of this taken together helps explain why, with a man on and Harvard trailing Missouri 11-4 in the sixth inning of an elimination game last Saturday, Joe Walsh called his probable Game 3 starter out of the bullpen in a game that was all-but-decided.

Haviland trotted to the mound of Goodwin Field to pitch in front of a growing crowd and a national TV audience.

The rookie might as well get a taste of what it’s like. He’ll probably be out there next season.

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.

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