MACON—In a sea of fans dressed in Lovett blue and Westminster green at Mercer University’s Claude Smith Field, one woman stands out. Her green and blue plaid button-down shirt makes everyone wonder exactly what team she is supporting.
The answer? Both of them.
“It’s really exciting,” said Harriet Huger, the mother of the sophomore fraternal twin brothers who are playing on different teams in the Class AAA finals. Westminster has third baseman Parks Harber, currently a University of Georgia commit. Lovett has his twin brother, Robson Harber, the backup catcher.
The brothers will have a day to trash talk after Lovett forced a decisive Game 3, weather pending, on Wednesday. Westminster took a convincing victory in Game 1, winning 6-4, and until the sixth inning of Game 2, it looked to be Westminster’s championship before Lovett charged. The Lions took the game with a 7-6 win on the back of a six-run sixth inning after being down 3-0 early.
But back to the brothers.
Parks and Robson could have gone to the same school easily, but Robson wanted to carve his own path and decided on Lovett instead of Westminster. He didn’t even try to be a Wildcat; he was a Lion all the way. Harriet, who graduated from Westminster in 1984, is all too familiar with the historic rivalry between the two schools and is OK with having a Lion under her roof.
“It is fun for them and it’s fun for me seeing both of them together,” she said as she walked through the ticket gate at Mercer before Game 1. “Every now and then I have to miss a game from one of them to see the other. But today I am guaranteed to see both games of theirs and I am guaranteed to go home with a winner.” She paused for a moment before saying, “And the other one, well, he’s just going to have to work through it. But hopefully it’ll just be a good school and sibling rivalry. Up to this point it’s been fun and healthy.”
For the boys, it might be a bit more of a heated contest than their mom leads to believe, especially entering a crucial Game 3. But that’s just brotherly love.
“I want to kill him,” laughed Lovett’s Robson Harber before the final series. “All week we didn’t really talk much, but it’s fun. If we don’t get them this time, we will just have to get them next year. But we did talk a bit about the games we split this year and now it comes down to this. If we win this year, though, I’m going to shove it right in his face.”
Similar sentiments were shared on the other bench, although in a bit more subtle tone.
“It’s hard but it’s also fun at the end of the day,” said Westminster’s Parks Harber. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Westminster has always kind of been for me. I grew up going there to football games and all. My brother did too, but he didn’t even apply to Westminster. It was always Lovett [for him].”
In the end, the brothers will find solace in either outcome. Whether Lovett wins its ninth title or Westminster takes its fifth, the house divided will stand.
“They said they’re playing well,” Parks said before Monday’s series. “I say we’re playing well. So we will see them on the field.”
And following the split of the first two games, the two brothers are thinking the same thing looking ahead to Game 3. Their mother, who got a text from Robson from the team bus asking if he could stay at a friend’s house Monday night, put things into perspective.
“You know,” she said, “baseball is a moody sport and a game of failure sometimes. So we’ll see what happens and who can rise to the occasion in Game 3. This will be a special memory for the boys, no matter who wins Wednesday.”
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