Series Sweep of Brown Boosts Baseball Back Into First

Monday, April 25

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

22-10, 9-6

Brown

8-25, 6-9

Brown

Dartmouth

Series Sweep of Brown Boosts Baseball Back Into First

4/25/2011 6:14:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Senior Jeff Onstott delivered a walk-off double in the seventh inning of the first game, and fellow senior Ryan Smith shut the door of game two with three scoreless innings while striking out a career-high five batters as Dartmouth completed a four-game sweep of visiting Brown on Monday afternoon with the twinbill triumph by scores of 2-1 and 11-4. With the sweep, the Big Green (23-10, 10-6 Ivy) is moved back into a tie with Yale atop the Rolfe Division standings with one weekend remaining in the regular season. Dartmouth also extended its home winning streak to 21 games, the longest in the country.

Brown (8-26, 6-10 Ivy) has now dropped seven straight games, despite stealing six bases in the nightcap, three by John Sheridan who also collected five hits in the doubleheader.

The first game began ominously as Brown loaded the bases with nobody out on a Sheridan single and stolen base, a walk and a fumbled sacrifice bunt. But junior Kyle Hendricks bore down and got a swinging strike three for the first out, then induced a double-play grounder to escape unscathed.

In the bottom half of the first, sophomore Chris O'Dowd launched a triple to left-center off Bear hurler Heath Mayo, and senior Jason Brooks followed by booming a double off the left-field fence for a 1-0 Dartmouth lead.

Both pitchers tossed zeroes on the board for the next five frames with Hendricks not allowing a base runner past second and Mayo retiring 16 of 17 Big Green batters.

In the seventh and final inning, Graham Tyler hit a grounder to the hole between first and second, and a diving Brooks could only stop the ball as Tyler legged out the lead-off single. After a sacrifice bunt, Hendricks punched out the next batter, leaving the Bears with just one out. Sheridan fell behind 1-2, but poked a ball through the right side, and Tyler slid into home just ahead of the throw to tie the game. Hendricks recovered to retire the side with his ninth strikeout to keep the score tied at one.

After having just three base runners over the first six innings, Dartmouth quickly went to work in its half of the seventh as Brooks lined a lead-off single to right. Sophomore Ennis Coble failed to get the bunt down, but nearly won the game with a long drive to right-center, only to have it tracked down by Bear right fielder Josh Feit. It did not matter, however, as Onstott followed by ripping a 2-0 pitch into the right-field corner, allowing Brooks to score easily from first for the winning run.

Hendricks (3-3) tossed his third complete game of the year and lowered his ERA to a team-leading 2.30 on the season, yielding the one run on six hits and a walk to go along with those nine strikeouts. Mayo (1-1) took the tough-luck loss as he gave up just two runs on five hits over 6.1 innings with three strikeouts.

In the second game, the Big Green jumped on Bear starter Anthony Galan (1-2) in the second inning for four runs. Onstott and freshman Jeff Keller drew back-to-back one-out walks, and moved up a base on a chopper to first. Junior Jake Carlson then snapped a 2-for-23 slump by dumping a single to center, scoring both runners. After junior Joe Sclafani singled Carlson to third — taking second on the throw — senior Sam Bean delivered another two-out, two-run single for a 4-0 Dartmouth lead.

The Big Green knocked Galan from the mound in the third with some more two-out lightning. Brooks led off with a double, but was still standing on second after consecutive line drives right at the center fielder. Again Keller walked, and junior David Turnbull laced a two-run double down the left-field line. Carlson then stroked a single back through the box to score Turnbull to make it a 7-0 game.

Meanwhile, freshman left-hander Mitch Horacek cruised through the first four innings. In the fifth, he quickly got the first two outs before Brown strung together five straight hits, scoring two runs and loading the bases. With the Bears threatening to get back into the game, Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen called upon freshman Mike Dodakian from the bullpen, who got a lazy fly to center to end the uprising.

The Bears tallied a pair of unearned runs in the sixth and could have had more, but with two outs and a man on second, Sheridan's line drive up the middle caught the umpire flush on the leg. Sheridan was credited with a single, but the runners had to remain at second. Dodakian then got the final out with another fly to center.

After Brown put the first two runners on to start the seventh, Whalen again made the call to the pen, this time for the Ivy League's all-time saves leader in Smith. After a flyout, he struck out the next two hitters to end the inning. Dartmouth added some insurance runs in the bottom half thanks in part to an error with Coble, Onstott and Keller all driving in runs. The final run of the game scored in the eighth when Sclafani hit a lead-off single off the brim of reliever Andrew Bakowski's hat, took second on a grounder, went to third on a single and scored on a dropped pop-up.

Carlson led the Big Green bats with his two hits and three RBIs, while four others also collected a pair of safeties. Dodakian (2-1) picked up the win while Smith got his third save of the year and 27th of his career.

Dartmouth will be back in action on Wednesday at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park when it hosts Hartford at 3 p.m. Brown hosts Rhode Island tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

Notes: Onstott played in his 159th career game, setting a new all-time record at Dartmouth … the four-game sweep of Brown was the first in Hanover since 1997.