Nine-Game California Swing Starts at Sacramento State

The Games: Dartmouth (0-3) at Sacramento State (6-9)
Location: John Smith Field, Sacramento, Calif.
First pitches at Sac State: 2 p.m. Thursday, 5 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 3 p.m. Monday (all times Eastern)
Series Record vs. Sacramento State: Tied 2-2
Live Audio — Sacramento State Game Central (except for first game)
Live Stats
Complete Game Notes

California Dreaming
•    By the time Dartmouth starts its nine-game road trip in California with the first of five contests at Sacramento State, it will have been 11 days since it last played.
•    The Big Green were swept in their season-opening series at 13th-ranked Louisiana State, although they did have a lead briefly in the sixth inning of game one and the seventh inning of game three.
•    Dartmouth is now 11-12 in the first game of the season under Whalen, having lost its last two, and 65-74-1 all-time in season openers.
•    Against LSU, the Big Green touched Tiger starter Kevin Gausman (a likely first-round pick in this year's MLB First-Year Player Draft) for four runs on 10 hits, equaling the most hits he has allowed in his collegiate career.
•    Senior Jake Carlson and sophomore Jeff Keller were the only Dartmouth players to record a hit in all three games.
•    Freshman outfielder Matt Robinson was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Week after going 4-for-6 with a walk, three runs and an RBI.
•    Another rookie, Thomas Roulis, played a large part in the offense, driving in two runs in each of the last two contests.
•    The defense uncharacteristically committed five errors in the second game at LSU, the most for the team in one game since April 30, 2006.
•    Last year the Big Green won their fourth straight Rolfe Division title with a 14-6 mark, but fell to Princeton in the best-of-three Ivy Championship Series held at the Tigers' Clarke Field, keeping Dartmouth from winning a third consecutive Ivy Championship.
•    While this won't come into play for a couple of more weeks, the Big Green open the season with a 24-game home winning streak intact, the longest in the country, although South Carolina is gaining at 21. The first home game will take place on March 28 (the earliest ever for Dartmouth) against Amherst.
•    Head coach Bob Whalen is in his 23rd season, sporting an overall record of 433-429-1, including last year's 30-12 mark. In 2010, he surpassed former big league pitcher Jeff Tesreau as the Big Green's all-time winningest coach. Tesreau coached Dartmouth for 28 seasons (1919-46).

Scouting Sacramento State
•    The Hornets have lost six of their last eight, including getting swept in a three-game series at then-No. 24 UCLA, but salvaged the last game of their three games at UC Riverside on Sunday, 5-2.
•    As a team Sacramento State is hitting .253 with only two players batting over .263 — DH Rhys Hoskins at .405 and right fielder Kyle Moses at an even .400.
•    Hoskins also has displayed the most power to date with four doubles and a pair of home runs, but third baseman Will Soto leads the team with six doubles and 11 RBIs.
•    The pitching staff sports a 5.58 team ERA but an ace in Tanner Mendonca, who has a 1.45 ERA over 31 innings to date. The bullpen is led by closer R.J. Davis who has yielded just three hits and five walks in 10 innings with three saves.
•    Defensively, the Hornets have performed just about as well as any team in the country with just eight errors and a .986 fielding percentage.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•    Junior LHP Kyle Hunter (0-0, 5.40 ERA) takes the mound for game one for the Big Green. In the season opener at LSU, he controlled the damage, leaving with a 4-3 lead after hurling five frames.
•    In game two, sophomore LHP Mitch Horacek (0-1, 12.60) will toe the slab, followed by another left-hander in junior LHP Michael Johnson (0-0, 6.75) on Saturday. The last two starters are yet to be determined, although sophomore RHP Louis Concato (0-1, 18.00) or freshman LHP Adam Frank (0-0, 13.50) could get the call.
•    For Sacramento State, right-handers will be in vogue, beginning with Hunter Greenwood (1-3, 9.18). Friday could possibly feature Zach Morgan (0-2, 9.00), followed by ace Tanner Mendonca (2-2, 1.45) the next day. Brennan Leitao (1-0, 4.74) climbs the hill on Sunday, but Monday's starter has yet to be announced.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth takes a day off before playing a solitary game at Cal Poly on Wednesday, March 23, and a three-game set at UC Irvine starting next Thursday. Both teams have received votes in the national polls at various times this spring.

Robinson Rookie of the Week
After going 4-for-6 with two runs and an RBI against 13th-ranked LSU during the opening weekend, freshman outfielder Matt Robinson was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. He is the 11th Big Green player to earn the award over the past seven seasons, the most for any school in the league in that span.

Three-Baggers Galore
Last year Dartmouth finished the season third nationally in triples per game, and sixth in total triples with a school-record 27. Junior Chris O'Dowd ripped the first three-bagger of the year in the second game at #13 LSU. But it is senior Joe Sclafani who is the team's triples king having broken a school record that stood for 73 years with eight last season, and is tied for the Dartmouth career record of 16. Those eight triples were also the fourth-most in the country last year.

Rare Miscues
When Dartmouth committed five errors in a 16-3 loss at #13 LSU on March 3, it was quite out of the ordinary. The Big Green had not piled up as many miscues in the field in nearly six full years when they recorded eight errors in the final Ivy game of the 2006 season against Harvard. In each of the last four seasons, Dartmouth has ranked among the top three in the league in fielding percentage, ranking as high as 21st nationally in 2010.

No-Decision King
Junior Kyle Hunter probably thought he got rid of his no-decision bug after a freshman season in which he had seven in nine starts. Last year he only had one, partly due to completing five of his nine starts. But against #13 LSU in the season opener, Hunter left after hurling five frames with a 4-3 lead, only to see the Tigers rally for an 8-4 victory. In his nine no-decisions, Dartmouth has gone 6-3, and only once did Hunter leave one of those games with the Big Green trailing.

Hitting On All Cylinders (or Games)
Five players got through the series at LSU by hitting safely in each game in which they played, including two that got at least one hit in all three contests — sophomore Jeff Keller and senior Jake Carlson. Both senior David Turnbull and freshman Matt Robinson played in two games, collecting hits in both, while freshman Matt MacDowell stroked a single in his first collegiate at-bat while pinch-hitting in game two.

Playing the Numbers
The Big Green got an early test by opening the season at 13th-ranked Louisiana State on March 2-4. Dartmouth had a lead after batting in the sixth of game one, and again after the top of the seventh in game three, but the host Tigers still managed to sweep the Green. Although there aren't any more games against teams currently in the rankings, the California trip does feature games against two teams receiving votes in the coaches and writers polls — Cal Poly and UC Irvine. The last ranked team Dartmouth beat was #21 Pepperdine in 2006 by a 3-2 margin in 11 innings, but of the Big Green's last eight losses to ranked squads, three have been by a single run.

Strong in the Week
Weekday games have been a paradise of sorts for the Dartmouth baseball team for nearly two years. Since a 4-2 loss at Bethune-Cookman on March 25, 2010 (a Thursday), the Big Green have won every game played on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, a total of 20 games.

Schedules