Dartmouth Baseball Loses Pair of One-Run Games at Harvard

May 1, 2005

Box Score | Photo Gallery

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Dartmouth baseball team lost a pair of one-run Ivy League against Harvard on Sunday at O'Donnell Field, 9-8 and 11-10, after holding late leads.

With the wins, Harvard (23-13, 14-4 Ivy) clinched a share of the regular-season Red Rolfe Division title. The Big Green fell to 12-19 overall and 7-11 in Ivy League play.

The Crimson pulled out game one after plating six key runs in the fifth.

The Big Green broke on top first, as senior Jeff Speights (San Diego, Calif.) singled home freshman Damon Wright (Dallas, Texas) with two down in the top of the first.

Dartmouth got two more in the second when senior Chris Grimm (Humble, Texas) scored on Wright's groundout and sophomore Will Bashelor (Bozrah, Conn.) singled home freshman Erik Bell (Sierra Madre, Calif.), who slid safely through a close play at the plate.

However, Harvard's Rob Wheeler made up the 3-0 deficit on one swing in the second with a three-run homer to left off Dartmouth junior Josh Faiola (Pueblo, Colo.).

Dartmouth regained the lead thanks to three runs in the third. Senior Brian Zurhellen (Placentia, Calif.) doubled, senior Josh Bailey (Lexington, Ky.) singled and senior Marty Hebert (Salisbury, Md.) singled into center, plating Zurhellen. Bailey scored and Hebert reached third on an errant throw by the center fielder, and Bell grounded out to short to bring home Hebert. The Big Green led, 6-3, through four innings.

Freshman Jason Blydell (Nahant, Mass.) padded the Big Green's lead with a pinch-hit, RBI single through the left side with two down in the fifth. Zurhellen came home on a head-first slide, narrowly beating the throw to the plate.

Down 7-3, Harvard rallied with six runs on six hits in the bottom of the fifth inning. Zak Farkes led off with a home run before the Crimson scored on a two-run single by Wheeler, two more run-scoring hits and an error. Harvard led after five, 9-7.

Bailey drove Zurhellen home with a two-out sacrifice fly in the seventh to make the score 9-8, but Harvard's Steffan Wilson finished off a two-inning save by striking out Hebert.

Zurhellen scored three runs for the Big Green while Bailey went 2-for-3. Sophomore Andrew Nacario (Carlsbad, Calif.) picked up a pair of outfield assists from left field.

Faiola suffered the complete-game loss after allowing eight earned runs on 12 hits while striking out four and walking one. Jason Brown notched the win with an inning of relief.

Dartmouth grabbed the lead first in the second game, too, posting five runs on five hits in the first inning. Nacario led off with a double before scoring on Wright's single to right. After Bashelor reaced on a fielder's choice, he stole second and scored on a single by Speights. Zurhellen walked and Bailey singled before Hebert hit an RBI single to left to make it 3-0. Blydell hit a grounder to score the fourth run, and Bailey scored on the ensuing throwing error by the second baseman.

Down 5-0, Harvard's Farkes smacked a solo home run through the wind into right field in the bottom of the inning.

Bashelor returned the favor in the second with a two-run homer into the wind in right that just cleared the short wall. Dartmouth led, 7-1.

Harvard's Schuyler Mann hit a solo home run to center to lead off the second before a sacrifice fly made it 7-3 before inning's end.

In the third, the Crimson drew even closer, plating three runs on four hits, including a solo home run from Josh Klimkiewicz and an RBI double by Brendan Byrne. Harvard trailed only 7-6 going into the fourth.

Mann followed with a two-run homer into straightaway center field with two down in the fourth to bring Harvard all the way back and put the Crimson on top, 8-7.

Harvard quieted the Big Green's bats after the second inning, as the Crimson shut Dartmouth out from the third through seventh innings.

Bashelor doubled with one down in the eighth, and Zurhellen tripled past a diving Farkes in center field with two down to tie the game. Zurhellen came home on a wild pitch to the next batter to put the Big Green on top, 9-8.

Harvard came back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning off Dartmouth senior closer Nick Peay (Murray, Utah). With the bases loaded and one out. Peay induced a hard-hit grounder to Bailey at second base. Bailey briefly juggled the ball, and Klimkiewicz's head-first slide into first base barely beat Bell's relay from shortstop.

In the ninth, Dartmouth took advantage of a Harvard defensive breakdown to take the lead. With one down, Blydell struck out on a ball in the dirt and took off for first. Mann, Harvard's catcher, dove to tag him, but it was ruled he missed the tag. Blydell then stole second on a pitch in the dirt, moved to third on a groundout and scored when Nacario hit a two-out grounder to short that was mishandled by Matt Vance.

The Crimson also took advantage of defensive lapses in the bottom of the ninth. Down 10-9, Wilson led off with a single and stole second before moving to third on Ian Wallace's single. Andrew Casey hit a fly ball just over the line in right field, and Grimm ran to make the catch for the first out as Wilson scampered home with the tying run and Wallace moved to second. After Byrne grounded out to move Wallace to third with two down, Vance hit a routine grounder to Bell, who bobbled the ball and threw late to first as Wallace crossed the plate with the winning run.

Peay was tagged with the loss in relief of sophomore Stephen Perry (Milford, N.H.), who allowed nine runs on 13 hits over the first seven innings.

Lance Salsgiver picked up the win in relief after blowing a save opportunity.

Bashelor finished 2-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. His steal was his 27th of the season, extending his own single-season program record, and 34th of his career, tying him for 10th in Dartmouth history. Zurhellen was 3-for-4 with two runs while Hebert finished 2-for-4.

The teams return to action tomorrow in a doubleheader at Red Rolfe Field that had been postponed on Saturday due to rain. A tentative start time is set for 1 p.m.

Schedules