CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard baseball unveiled its 2017 schedule on Thursday, highlighted by 12 games at O’Donnell Field. This campaign marks the 151st anniversary of Crimson baseball.
Harvard will host the first round of the Beanpot in 2017 as well as a quintet of Ivy League doubleheaders. The schedule pits the Crimson against a pair of squads that advanced to the 2016 NCAA Tournament, most notably Boston College who boasted a Super Regional appearance.
Harvard opens up the 2017 slate in the nation’s capital, clashing with Lafayette and Coppin State in Washington, D.C. over the first weekend in March. A southern jaunt in the Sunshine State hosts the Crimson’s next 10 match-ups from March 10-19; A four-game series against Jacksonville, solo tilts against northeastern rivals Bucknell and Massachusetts, and then a four-game set with South Florida to round out the road trip.
After two doubleheaders against Army March 25-26, the Crimson will finally play ball in Cambridge with visiting Holy Cross to wrap up the month of March. The Ivy League slate will open up with away doubleheaders versus Columbia and Penn, leading Harvard into a rematch with Massachusetts in the first round of the Beanpot.
Back-to-back home doubleheaders ensue in Cambridge April 8-9 against Cornell and defending Ivy champion Princeton. After a mid-week tilt with Boston College, Harvard will host Yale in a four-game weekend series April 15-16. The championship and consolation rounds of the Beanpot follow April 19 at a site to be announced.
The Crimson will wrap up the regular season with a quartet of contests at Brown April 22-23, a midweek road tilt against UMass-Lowell, and a four-game home and home series with Dartmouth the subsequent weekend.
Harvard tallied a 17-24 record in 2016, including a third-place finish in the Ivy League Red Rolfe division. The Crimson has posted 17 wins or more in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2006 and 2007. Harvard returns its top six leaders in RBI, as well as two starters from its 2016 rotation.
