Dramatic Finish in Inaugural Game at New Baseball Stadium

Wednesday, April 1

Hanover, N.H.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

6-9

Siena

4-21

Siena

Dartmouth

Dramatic Finish in Inaugural Game at New Baseball Stadium

4/1/2009 6:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. ? The Dartmouth Big Green made the inaugural game at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park a dramatic one, scoring five runs in the eighth to win their fifth straight game, 8-6, against the visiting Siena Saints (4-21). Junior Nick Santomauro (North Caldwell, N.J.) provided the only hit in the inning with a two-run double, scoring the winning runs for Dartmouth (6-9).

Trailing 6-3 in the eighth, the Big Green showed great patience in mounting their rally. Senior Ray Allen (Longwood, Fla.) drew a walk on a full-count pitch to start the uprising, then was safe at second when the third baseman threw wide on a force play. After a long fly off the bat of junior Brett Gardner (Bellevue, Wash.) was tracked down in left-center for the first out, reliever Zach Hartman (1-5) walked each of the next three hitters, forcing in two runs.

Siena called for Kyle Sumple out of the bullpen, and sophomore Jeff Onstott (Houston, Texas) greeted him with a sacrifice fly to left, tying the game at six. Dartmouth still had not recorded a hit in the inning until Santomauro lined a 2-2 pitch over the shortstop's head for a two-bagger, scoring both runners for the 8-6 lead.

Sophomore Ryan Smith (Greenlawn, N.Y.) came on to pitch the ninth, and he retired the side in order for his fourth save of the year.

Freshman Marco Mariscal (1-0) earned his first collegiate victory by tossing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief, striking out two hitters as well.

Dartmouth was outhit by the Saints, 12-6, on the afternoon, but Santomauro, Onstott, senior Johnathon Santopadre (Vacaville, Calif.) and freshman Joe Sclafani (Palm City, Fla.) all drove in two runs to bolster the Big Green offense.

Siena struck first in the third inning with an unearned run. William Cardona, who was 4-for-4 in the game, hit a sinking liner to left that fell for a hit and scooted by the left fielder, allowing Cardona to reach second. Sophomore southpaw Colin Britton (Poughquag, N.Y.) nearly escaped the inning by retiring the next two hitters, but Jason DeFilippo hit an RBI double to left for a 1-0 Saint lead.

In the bottom half, Dartmouth got that run back when Santopadre walked, advanced to second on a Sclafani sacrifice, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Onstott's RBI grounder to short that was thrown away at first for an error.

The Big Green took the lead in the fourth with a two-out rally. Gardner reached on an infield single in the hole at short and moved up to second when the first baseman dropped a low throw from the third baseman on a grounder off the bat of senior Jack Monahan (Overland Park, Kan.). Santopadre took advantage of the miscue by grounding a single through the left side to score Gardner. Monahan also scored when Sclafani hit a seeing-eye grounder that glanced off the glove of a diving third baseman.

But the Saints scored three times with two outs in the fifth. With runners at first and second, Dan Paolini singled right back through the box to get Siena within a run. Clean-up hitter Kevin Quaranto followed with a booming double to straight-away center, giving the Saints a 4-3 lead, ending Britton's afternoon. Sophomore Dan Ternowchek (Glenmoore, Pa.) got the third out to keep the Big Green deficit at one.

Ternowchek retired five of the first six batter he faced before DeFilippo jumped on a high fastball and lined it just inside the left-field foul pole for his first home run of the season. Paolini then doubled, and Quaranto lined a single to right off Mariscal to put Siena up by three.

Dartmouth gets back into Ivy play this weekend, hosting doubleheaders against Princeton and Cornell at noon on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Siena travels to Saint Peter's for a three-game MAAC series beginning with a twinbill on Saturday at noon.