Dartmouth Baseball Sweeps Cornell, Extends Winning Streak to Longest Since 2000

April 10, 2005

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HANOVER, N.H. - The Dartmouth baseball team completed its third straight sweep of an Ivy League doubleheader on Sunday, 6-2 and 4-3, against Cornell at Red Rolfe Field.

The Big Green's (9-9, 6-2 Ivy) six-game winning streak is its longest since a 12-game run in 2000, and Dartmouth has now won seven in a row over the Big Red (6-13, 1-5).

In game one, freshman southpaw Russell Young (Cleburne, Texas) had his second straight strong outing en route to a 6-2 victory in the seven-inning contest. Young struck out four and yielded two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.

Dartmouth scored first for the seventh time in as many Ivy games this season when sophomore Will Bashelor (Bozrah, Conn.) doubled home freshman Will Schmidley (Little Rock, Ark.) with one down in the first.

The Big Green pulled away with a four-run second inning. Senior Josh Bailey (Lexington, Ky.) led off with a double to the right field fence before scoring on senior Marty Hebert's (Salisbury, Md.) triple to the left-center field gap. Hebert came in to score thanks to a nifty hook slide on senior Chris Grimm's (Humble, Texas) fielder's choice, Grimm scored on Bashelor's fielder's choice, and sophomore Andrew Nacario (Carlsbad, Calif.) came around to score on a passed ball.

Cornell broke through for two runs in the fifth, snapping Young's scoreless string at 11 1/3 innings. The Big Red picked up three singles during the inning, including two infield hits.

Bailey got a run back in the sixth when the right-handed hitter slugged a solo home run off the right field scoreboard.

With two on and two out in the seventh and the Big Green leading, 6-2, senior Nick Peay (Murray, Utah) induced a fielder's choice that ended the contest. Young recorded the win and moved to 3-0 while Peay collected his first save of the season.

Bashelor ended up with two RBIs while Bailey and Grimm each went 2-for-3.

Cornell starter Bryce Klinesteker took the loss after allowing five runs, four hits and two walks over 1 1/3 innings.

In the nightcap, Dartmouth rallied from a 3-0 deficit and held on for a tight 4-3 victory.

The Big Red plated three runs on four hits in the fourth inning to stake Rocky Collis to a 3-0 lead. Collis had a no-hitter going through the first 3 2/3 innings and allowed only one of the first 12 Dartmouth batters to reach base, which came on a strikeout-wild pitch.

However, the Big Green took out the bats with two down in the fourth, launching back-to-back solo home runs to cut the lead to 3-2. Senior Jeff Speights (San Diego, Calif.) homered off the top of the left-center field fence to break up the no-hitter and shutout before classmate Brian Zurhellen's (Placentia, Calif.) drive barely cleared the fence in left.

Speights came up big again in the sixth. With runners on second and third and one down, Speights' grounder to second allowed Nacario to come home with the tying run.

The following inning, freshman Jason McManis (Flower Mound, Texas) dropped a floater into right field between two fielders to put runners on the corners with two down and set up a crucial situation. Nacario, the next batter, hit a routine grounder to second that took an odd ricochet off second baseman Seth Gordon and allowed Hebert to score the go-ahead run.

Peay came on to pitch the ninth and, with the tying run on second, got pinch-hitter Garrett Wasson to pop up to McManis at shortstop before striking out Gordon, who had been 3-for-3, swinging on a 3-2 pitch.

Sophomore Stephen Perry (Milford, N.H.) notched the victory for Dartmouth after allowing three runs on eight hits in eight innings. Peay's second save of the day extended his program career saves record to 13.

Bashelor stole two more bases to increase his total to 17, and he's now within three of becoming the eighth player in program history with 20 steals in a season.

Collis received a no-decision despite striking out nine and walking one in six innings. Tad Bardenwerper was tagged with the loss.

Dartmouth returns to action on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the University of Vermont before returning to Ivy League action at home against Brown during Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders at 12 p.m.

Schedules