’s Journal works on mechanics, aiming to keep bat- Nonetheless, the ability “to throw off- ing the batter into swinging ahead of the ters from seeing the ball until it is leaving speed pitches for strikes is a big sepa- pitch. his hand: that diminishes the hitter’s reac- rator,” Suter says. Any baseball hurler Suter gets plenty of outs throwing tion time, making a pitcher “sneaky fast.” worth his salt can pound the strike zone a change on, say, an 0-1 count, making Actually, Suter throws two kinds of with fastballs, but if that’s his only pitch, the batter top the ball for a groundout. fastball, the two-seam and four-seam, hitters will begin to “sit on” (expect) the When hitters put the ball in play, Suter differentiated by his grip on the ball (see fastball and tee off on it. Hence the im- gets about half his sidebar.) The four-seamer travels straight- portance of off-speed pitches like Suter’s outs from ground- er and a couple of miles per hour faster: it’s curve and change-up, which move dif- outs and half from fly Visit harvardmag.com/ a good pitch to try when a batter has two ferently from the fastball and arrive at balls. “You strive for extras to see a video of strikes, because the extra gas can blow the the plate at a different speed. His “out ground-ball outs,” he Brent Suter pitching. ball by a hitter for a strikeout. And Suter pitch” is his change-up: thrown with the says. “Especially with metal bats [which is a strikeout pitcher: last year he fanned same motion as the fastball, but with a make balls carry farther than wooden 47 in 49.2 innings pitched, while posting a grip that nestles the ball in the palm of ones], you want to keep the ball out of 4-2 record with a 5.26 ERA. As a freshman the hand, the change-up may travel eight the air. And you always want to miss the he whiffed 53 in as many innings. to 12 mph slower than the fastball, fool- barrel of the bat.” vcraig lambert

thunder with cheers. At the final buzzer, hundreds of Harvard students charged out of the stands to mob their team. Historic Hoops Season A week later, in another thrilling con- test, the same two teams met in the Yale On the regular season’s final weekend, of Holy Grail among Crimson hoopsters gym for a one-game playoff to determine the Harvard men’s team over- and their fans. (The Harvard women, which of the Ivy co-champions would powered perennial top dogs in contrast, have captured 11 Ivy titles.) have the league’s automatic entry into the Penn and Princeton to win the Crimson’s That’s why the season-ending home NCAA postseason tournament. This one first-ever Ivy championship. By pacifying game against Princeton on Saturday night, went down to the wire: the Crimson led the Quakers, 79-64, and taming the Tigers, March 5, was literally the biggest basket- by a point with only 2.8 seconds remain- 79-67, the Crimson men capped off the ball game in Harvard’s history, and sold ing, but the Tigers hit a buzzer-beating first 100 years of hoops at the College in out weeks in advance. ESPN provided shot (videotape review required) to win, the most satisfying manner: Harvard and national coverage, and 63-62. Thus Harvard’s postseason play Princeton shared the 2011 Ivy title with touted the contest beforehand. was in the National Invitation Tournament 12-2 records after the Tigers ended their The game lived up to all its hype. In (NIT) rather than the NCAA March Mad- season three days later with a victory at an electrifying first half that saw 18 lead ness. Oklahoma State bested the Crim- Penn. changes and the score tied nine times, son, 71-54, in the NIT’s first round. (Ken- Harvard had been the only college not Harvard battled to a 37-36 lead by half- tucky dispatched Princeton, 59-57, in the to win a men’s Ivy basketball title since time. In the second half, the Crimson first round of the NCAAs.) the league began in 1956, and the quest gradually took over the game as the The team’s 23 victories are the most for a championship had become a sort pumped-up crowd made the small gym in the history of the program; the 23-7 overall mark (including postseason) Standout players Kyle Casey (30) topped last year’s 21-8. The Crimson’s and Keith Wright (44) in action record of 14-0 at Lavietes Pavilion set as Harvard, in its final home a new record for home wins. Forward game, beat Prince­ton, 79-67 to clinch a share of the Ivy League Keith Wright ’12 was elected Ivy League championship Player of the Year and named to the All-Ivy First Team, while the National Association of Basketball Coaches hon- ored head coach Tommy Amaker as its All-District Coach of the Year for Dis- trict 13. The triumphant 14-man squad will lose no seniors in May, and has only three juniors. In a column on Harvard’s landmark season-ending weekend, the Globe’s Bob Ryan concluded, “Har-

o n ffice inf o r m ati sp o rts t/ H arvard vard is coming, and Harvard will not be

alb o stopped.” T G il

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