The baseball team will try to rebound from its worst week of the season and end its five-game losing streak when Yale hosts archrival Harvard for a four-game homestand this weekend.

“It’s fun to beat Harvard because people always ask how you did against them,” second baseman Gant Elmore ’11 said. “It’s a little added bonus to get to have four games at home against them and it’s a chance to show the Ivy League that what we did at the beginning of the year wasn’t a fluke and that we really are a good team.”

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Lately the Elis (16–18–1, 3–9 Ivy) have not looked like a team that started its season 9–4–1.

This past weekend at Dartmouth, the Bulldogs’ offensive production was largely absent, as they only scored eight runs in four games, including a 3–0 shutout loss.

Although the team is currently on a 2–7 slide, the majority of the losses have been close games. Six out of Yale’s seven losses during this skid have been decided by three runs or fewer.

On Wednesday, Yale’s bats came alive with 17 hits and 18 runs against a struggling Quinnipiac squad. But at the same time, the Elis’ pitching staff unraveled, allowing 23 hits and 19 runs, including a two-out walk-off three-run home run to the Bobcats, who had been hitting just .265 as a team.

The Bulldogs will meet their match in the Crimson (14–20, 6–6), who have also have an up-and-down season and reside ahead of Yale in third place in the Ivy League’s Rolfe Division. After going on a three-game losing streak two weeks ago, Harvard has won its last three games — 6–2 and 9–0 against Brown, and 15–11 over Massachusetts.

Statistically Yale holds the advantage in both the batting and pitching categories. The Bulldogs are batting .303 and have a 5.84 ERA, compared to the Crimson’s .265 batting average and 7.77 ERA.

Although a few weeks ago first baseman Trygg Larsson-Danforth ’10 and Elmore were flirting with .400, recently their averages have fallen to .375 and .363, respectively.

Last year at home, after losing the first game, Harvard won the next three contests between the two teams 4–2, 7–4 and 3–2.

Rookie pitcher Brook Hart ’11, who joined the team this year after having been a quarterback for the football team, said he was excited to participate in the rivalry in a context different from The Game.

“Although it won’t have the feeling of The Game, anytime you play Harvard I think it’s a big deal,” Hart said. “When we look back on the season we have the chance to say ‘We stuck it to Harvard,’ if nothing else.”

Saturday’s doubleheader starts at 1 p.m., and Sunday’s games begin at noon at Yale Field.