Tag: Harvard Crimson

Duke football lands former Harvard cornerback from the transfer portal

Diassa Diakite, who spent the four years with Harvard before spending 2023 with Robert Morris, will play for the Blue Devils this fall.

The Blue Devils landed a former Harvard football player from the transfer portal this month.

Lost amid a hot streak on the 2025 recruiting trail, with Duke landing double-digit commitments since the month began, cornerback Diassa Diakite committed to the Blue Devils from the transfer portal.

Diakite spent 2019-22 with the Crimson, but he only played one game in his first two collegiate seasons because the Ivy League canceled its 2020 football season. After playing 15 games across his final two seasons with the program, tallying 15 total tackles and deflecting three passes, he transferred to Robert Morris for the 2023 season.

He tallied 31 total tackles for the season with the Colonials and his first career interception in a game against Tennessee Tech. The 6-foot corner should have one final year of eligibility remaining, based on his transfer announcement from the previous year.

He’s the second cornerback commitment from the transfer portal this offseason after former Rice defensive back Tre’Shon Devones.

No. 12 Duke kicks off 2024 campaign with 6-3 win over Indiana behind Santucci, transfer Logan Bravo

No.12 Duke baseball kicked off 2024 campaign with a 6-3 win over Indiana.

Friday started what head baseball coach Chris Pollard hopes to be a historic season for the Duke Blue Devils baseball team.

No. 12 Duke got their 2024 campaign started as they hope that this year is the year they break down the door and punch their ticket to Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series.

Duke started its campaign with a win over the Indiana Hoosiers of the Big 10. Preseason second-team All-American Jonathan Santucci has been tabbed as the ace of Duke’s staff, so it was only fitting the junior was given the ball in the season’s first game. His first inning was rocky as he allowed a walk and a hit but fought back to strike out three Hoosiers to get out of the gym.

Braden Risedorph started for Indiana and held the Blue Devils in check for four innings before the top of the fifth rolled around, and the Blue Devils scratched across their first run of the season. True freshman Kyle Johnson doubled with two outs and was knocked in on an RBI double from Oklahoma transfer Wallace Clark. Indiana would bring in Ryan Kraft, and he’d close the door on the Blue Devils in the fifth.

Santucci would give Duke one more scoreless inning before his day was over. He threw 86 pitches in his 2024 debut and struck out seven batters while walking two and allowing zero runs on four singles.

Back-to-back home runs by catcher and captain Alex Stone and Harvard transfer Logan Bravo stretched Duke’s lead to 3-0 in the top half of the sixth before Indiana answered with two runs courtesy of shortstop Tyler Cerny, who took Duke reliever Owen Proksch deep.

Duke responded with two more runs at the top of the seventh, thanks again to the combination of Stone and Bravo. Stone hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Wallace Clark. Bravo would come behind him and rip a single down the left-field line to score Zac Morris and make it 5-2 Duke.

Indiana pushed back on Duke again with a home run by center fielder Carter Mathison in the bottom of the seventh against Proksch before Pollard went to his bullpen to call on 2024 stopper-of-the-year nominee Charlie Beilinson to get Duke out of a two-on-and-one-out jam with the game at 5-3. Beilinson would do just that: strike out the two batters to end the Hoosiers’ threat and send the game to the 8th inning.

North Carolina native and sophomore outfielder Tyler Albright hit a hanging breaking ball deep to left field to give Duke a 6-3 lead in the top half of the eighth, and Beilinson would shut the door in the eight and ninth to end his day and secure the win for the Blue Devils.

Logan Bravo led the way with a 3/5 one-home run and two RBIs. Alex Stone had two RBIs as well. In total, Duke amassed ten hits and had zero errors defensively.

The Blue Devils will rest up and prepare for a Saturday matinee affair with the George Mason Patriots tomorrow with lefty Andrew Healy on the bump.

Ohio State men’s hockey dominates Harvard, advances in NCAA Tournament

A big upset for the Buckeyes and they’ll move on in the NCAA Tournament. #GoBucks

Hardly anyone expected it, but the Ohio State men’s hockey team dominated  No. 2 seed Harvard, 8-1, in a Bridgeport regional on Friday afternoon for a first-round upset in the NCAA Tournament.

The Buckeyes started from the drop of the puck, outshooting Harvard 17-3 in the first period and notching two goals after several high-quality chances throughout the first 20 minutes. Cam Thiesing got OSU on the board first with a nifty roof shot heading towards the goal just 3:22 into the contest.

Following an onslaught from the bigger and more physical Buckeye squad, and after several narrow misses, Ohio State made it 2-0 with just 1:36 left in the period when Cole McWard’s shot hit the skate of a Crimson defender and richocheted into the back of the net.

OSU would enter the break up by a couple of goals and seeminly in control of all aspects of the game.

Sometimes a reset at the break is all a team needs to regain itself, but that never happened for Harvard. Ohio State came out in the second period, and if anything, looked even better, scoring five goals in the period by creating turnovers in the neutral zone and punishing the smaller Harvard squad the entire distance of the ice.

Gustaf Westland, Cam Thiesing, Mason Lohrei, Joe Dunlap, and Cole McWard all lit the lamp in the period to put the game out of reach and the result no longer in doubt. The Buckeyes finished entered the second intermission with a commanding 7-0 lead.

Patrick Guzzo would give Ohio State one more goal in the third period, and Harvard finally got one into the back of the net on a power play with 3:10 remaining to cap the scoring.

With the win, the Buckeyes advance to the regional final against the winner of No. 1 seed Quinnipiac and No. 4 seed Merrimack. That game is set for Sunday.

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