Baseball Drops Heartbreaker in Ivy Championship Finale

Wednesday, May 7

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

25-17

Columbia

22-25

Columbia

Dartmouth

Baseball Drops Heartbreaker in Ivy Championship Finale

5/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Box Score

HANOVER, N.H. ? Despite a five-run outburst in the fifth inning, the Dartmouth baseball team saw its season come to end as Columbia took the third and deciding game from the Big Green, 7-5, at Red Rolfe Field.

Dartmouth finishes the season with a 25-17 record, while Columbia moves on to the NCAA Tournament with a 22-25 mark.

Both teams plated runs with the long ball as Columbia hit four round trippers, while Dartmouth connected on two. Sophomore Nick Santomauro (North Caldwell, N.J.) hit his fourth homer of the series and senior Jack Monahan (Overland Park, Kan.) hit his first collegiate long ball in the Dartmouth bottom of the fifth.

On the mound, freshman Jake Pruner (Triangle, Va.) got the ball for the Big Green and went 5.2 innings, allowing six runs on eight hits, while fanning four. Classmate Ryan Smith (Greenlawn, N.Y.) relieved Pruner in the sixth and threw the final 3.1 innings, giving up one run on two hits and striking out one.

After a scoreless first inning for the first time in the series, Columbia's Mike Roberts put the Lions on top with a solo homer to left field to give Columbia the first lead at 1-0.

The Lions got two more in the top of the fifth inning to make it 3-0. Alex Ferrera recorded one of his two homers in the contest with deep drive to left field and Henry Perkins added to the lead with a run scoring double to give Columbia the 3-0 advantage.

Dartmouth's big inning came in the bottom of the fifth as the Big Green took a 5-3 lead with a five-run fifth.

Senior Jason Blydell (Nahant, Mass.) led off the inning with a single and trotted home on a two-run blast to right field for Monahan to cut the lead to 3-2. Then junior Johnathon Santopadre (Vacaville, Calif.) singled to left field, advanced to second on a single by freshman Jeff Onstott (Houston, Texas). With two on and two outs, Santomauro crushed the pitcher's offering for a three-run homer to the deepest part of the ballpark to give Dartmouth its first lead at 5-3.

Columbia came right back to take a 6-3 lead on a three-run homer by Ferrera, who hit two round trippers and collected four runs batted in for the Lions.

Henry Perkins, who actually came in to pitch in the fifth inning, homered down the left field line and over the foul pole to cushion the lead for Columbia at 7-5. Perkins then took over on the mound. He went the final four innings, giving up only one and no runs to earn his first save of the season.

Dartmouth had its chances in the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded and one out, but could not capitalize. Columbia took advantage and closed out the game with double plays in both the eighth and ninth innings.