Twinbill Triumphs Extend Dartmouth's Home Win Streak to 15

Sunday, April 10

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

16-6, 5-2

Princeton

12-14, 6-1

Princeton

Dartmouth

Twinbill Triumphs Extend Dartmouth's Home Win Streak to 15

4/10/2011 6:03:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — In a clash of the Ivy League divisional leaders, Dartmouth got the best of Princeton in a doubleheader at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park on Sunday afternoon, knocking off the Tigers in 10 innings in the first game, 4-3, then finishing off the sweep with a 5-2 victory in the nightcap. Senior reliever Ryan Smith picked up a win and a save on the day to help the Big Green improve to 17-6 on the season and 6-2 in the Ivy League while extending their winning streak at home to 15 games, second only to North Carolina's current 17-game streak. In the process, Dartmouth also snapped the Tigers' nine-game win streak and handed Princeton (12-15, 6-2 Ivy) its first two league losses.

The Big Green proved to be a wily escape artist in the opener, taking advantage of every Tiger mistake and pitching out of a couple of jams that would have made Houdini proud. Senior Jeff Onstott capped off the exciting contest by punching a walk-off single with one out in the 10th to lift Dartmouth to the 4-3 win.

With the score tied at three in the bottom of the 10th, Princeton reliever David Palms lost sight of the strike zone, walking both sophomore Chris O'Dowd and senior Jason Brooks on a total of nine pitches. The two pulled off a double steal before Palms (1-2) issued his third straight walk to load the bases. After fouling off the first offering from Palms, Onstott served the second one into right field for the game-winning hit.

Dartmouth was fortunate not to be behind in its half of the 10th as Princeton put runners on first and third with nobody out in the top half of the frame. Big Green head coach Bob Whalen summoned Smith (2-1) from the bullpen, and he induced a pair of ground balls that kept the runner at third, then froze Alex Flink on a called third strike to keep the tie score intact.

The Tigers had taken a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning of the scheduled seven-inning contest when Mike Ford, Sam Mulroy and Steve Harrington each singled with two outs to plate Ford with the go-ahead run.

That run gave Ford an opportunity to win the gem he was pitching as well, having allowed just two hits and no earned runs over the first seven innings. Senior Sam Bean singled with one out before Ford got O'Dowd to fly to right, leaving the Big Green with just one out with which to work. Brooks lined a single to right, and when the ball skipped under the right fielder's glove, Bean was able to come all the way around from first to tie the game. The throw to the plate also got away, allowing Brooks to take third, but Ford did not fret and recorded the third out with the scored tied at three.

The first Dartmouth run came in the first inning when Bean reached on an error, went to second on a walk to O'Dowd and scored on sophomore Ennis Coble's single to left. Ford helped his own cause in the second by launching the first pitch he saw over the fence in left field for a solo shot, his second long ball of the year.

Another unearned run crossed the dish in the third for Dartmouth. Junior Joe Sclafani hit a liner to left that was misplayed for a two-base error, then scored when Bean's grounder to second was thrown away for another error. Again the Tigers tied the score, doing so in the fifth on a one-out walk to Andrew Whitener, a ground ball to advance him to second base and a line single to center by Alec Keller.

Junior Big Green hurler Kyle Hendricks faced his most difficult task in the sixth when Princeton loaded the bases with nobody out. But he kept his composure on the mound, catching Harrington looking at strike three before Flink hit a liner right to Sclafani at shortstop, who flipped the ball to Coble covering the bag at second to double up the runner.

Hendricks pitched eight innings in the game, yielding three runs on eight hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven. His counterpart Ford hurled 8.2 innings and allowed three unearned runs on six hits and one walk to go along with seven strikeouts.

In the second game, Dartmouth gave freshman pitcher Mitch Horacek all the runs he would need in the first inning. Bean, O'Dowd, Brooks and Coble each singled with one out with the last two picking up RBIs for a 2-0 lead. With two gone, freshman Ryan Toimil was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and junior David Turnbull fisted a ball on the infield for a run-scoring single to make it a three-run game.

Horacek (3-0) had just one hiccup in his six innings, surrendering a solo blast to Matt Connor in the fifth inning. But that was the only run the Tigers could muster against the southpaw, who allowed seven hits and a walk while fanning five.

In the seventh inning, Sclafani ripped an RBI double and Brooks lofted a sacrifice fly for a pair of insurance runs.

Smith entered the game with runners at the corners and one down in the ninth, quickly getting the second out on a fielder's choice to third, sending the man on the third home to make it a 5-2 ball game. After an infield single, Smith got the final out waving at strike three for his second save of the season and the 26th of his career, extending his own Ivy League record.

Matt Grabowski (1-3) took the loss for Princeton, giving up all five runs on eight hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

Dartmouth puts its 15-game home winning streak on the line on Tuesday afternoon when the Big Green host Boston College (13-16) at 3 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth improved its all-time record to 1,775-1,773-24 since first fielding a baseball team in 1866. It is the first time that record has been above .500 since April 28, 1991, less than three weeks shy of 20 years ago … Coach Whalen evened his career record to 420-420-1.