Harrington dominates Aurora for win, save
With all the talk of the baseball team’s pitching woes, it would be easy to overlook third-year Dan Harrington’s solid season. On Saturday, he pitched 9.1 innings over two games to help lead the 20-9 Maroons to a sweep of traditional powerhouse Aurora (13-16).
Harrington entered in the first game to relieve second-year starter Dan Yeksigian with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the sixth. After walking the first hitter to cut Chicago’s lead to 10-9, Harrington induced a pop up to second base to get out of the jam. Aurora didn’t get a ball out of the infield in the bottom of the seventh, as the Maroons earned the win, and Harrington earned the save.
He came back to start the second game and got into a pitching duel with Aurora ace Robbie Fontana. Using his fastball and sharp curve, Harrington gave up only two runs, both unearned, over the eight inning game.
Second-year right fielder Ryan Denton drove in fourth-year second baseman Ben McCown for the eventual game winning run. McCown added two RBI on the day to put him in sole possession of second place in the school’s single season record book with 43 RBI. He also leads the nation in RBI per game.
Harrington, who near the end was throwing entirely on adrenaline, is now 5-1 on the season with a 3.19 ERA. He has 55 strikeouts in 53.2 innings.
The sweep gave the Maroons their seventh straight win as they continue the most difficult stretch of the season. They host North Central (15-14) on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
