Bats Muted as Yale Complete Weekend Ivy Sweep

Sunday, April 17

New Haven, Conn.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

18-9, 6-5

Yale

19-12, 7-4

Dartmouth

Yale

Bats Muted as Yale Complete Weekend Ivy Sweep

4/17/2011 6:29:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Dartmouth was held to just one run in a doubleheader on Sunday as Yale finished a four-game sweep of the Big Green with 3-0 and 5-1 victories at Yale Field. Christopher O'Hare twirled a four-hit shutout in the opener for the Bulldogs (20-12, 8-4 Ivy) while Pat Ludwig struck out 12 in the nightcap, exacting revenge for the four-game sweep Dartmouth (18-10, 6-6 Ivy) enjoyed last year in Hanover.

The Big Green entered the weekend hitting .327 as a team and averaging 8.5 runs per game, but managed to hit just .205 in the four-game series while scoring a total of three runs.

In the first game, O'Hare (4-0) allowed just one base runner over the first four innings, then escaped two-out, two-on jams in each of the next two frames. In the seventh and final inning, he worked around a one-out double to freshman Jeff Keller to finish off his shutout. He walked just two hitters and struck out six on the afternoon.

Yale got the only run it would need in the opening frame on three consecutive two-out singles by Andy Megee, Trey Rallis and Ryan Brenner.

After Andrew Moore drew the only walk junior right-hander Kyle Hendricks issued to start the fifth, Cam Squires came through with a two-out triple to score pinch-runner Matt Schmidt. The Bulldogs tacked on one last run in the sixth when Brenner singled with two gone, stole second and scored on a Jacob Hunter double.

Hendricks (2-3) turned in a quality start, giving up three runs on seven hits and a walk in his six innings with seven strikeouts, but his performance was no match for O'Hare's four-hit shutout.

Game two was decided in the third. Freshman Mitch Horacek (3-1) cruised through the first two innings and quickly retired the first two batters in the third, but the third out proved to be elusive. Squired pulled a double down the left-field line, then came around to score on Cale Hanson's single to left. Another single by Megee put runners on the corners before Horacek got Rallis swinging at strike three. Unfortunately for the Big Green, the pitch skipped past the catcher, allowing Rallis to reach and Hanson to score. Two pitches later, Brenner belted his first home run of the year, a three-run job, to give the Bulldogs a 5-0 lead.

Dartmouth managed to string together consecutive singles in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings, but always with two outs. In the third, the Yale defense gunned down senior Sam Bean trying to take second on a throw to third, and Ludwig got the final out in the fourth and fifth on strikes.

Meanwhile, Big Green freshman reliever Mike Dodakian — who got the final out in the fateful third — was making quick work of the Bulldog lineup, hurling 3.1 scoreless innings.

With the score still 5-0 heading into the eighth, Dartmouth finally scratched out a run against Ludwig (3-2) when junior Joe Sclafani laced his sixth triple of the year and scored on Bean's grounder to short. When senior Jason Brooks singled with two outs, Ludwig's day was done having yielded the one run on eight hits and a walk to go along with his dozen whiffs.

Rob Cerfolio came on and got a comebacker to end the eighth, and Kevin Fortunato struck out the side in the ninth to close out the game.

Sclafani had three of the Big Green's eight hits off Ludwig and stole a base, but Dartmouth struck out a season-high 15 times in the contest.

Yale also had eight hits in the game, with Megee collecting three of them.

Dartmouth returns home on Tuesday to take on Saint Anselm at 3:30 p.m., while Yale travels to Army on Wednesday to play at 3:30 p.m. as well. The Big Green enters the game against the Hawks with a 16-game home winning streak on the line, the second longest such streak in Division I.

Notes: Dartmouth had not lost more than two consecutive games since March 24-26, 2010, when Illinois swept a twinbill from the Big Green and Bethune-Cookman won the first two games of a three-game series … Dartmouth had not scored as few as three runs over a four-game stretch since April 22-27, 1986.