League Play Begins with Rematch of 2011 Ivy Championship Series

The Games: Dartmouth (3-10, 0-0) at Princeton (6-9, 0-0); at Cornell (13-4-1, 0-0)
Locations: Clarke Field (1,000), Princeton, N.J.; Hoy Field (1,000), Ithaca, N.Y.
First pitches: Noon doubleheader on Saturday, March 31; Noon doubleheader on Sunday, April 1
Series Record vs. Princeton: Tigers lead, 91-82
Series Record vs. Cornell: Big Green lead, 89-75-1
Live Stats
Complete Game Notes

Start of Conference Play
For a second straight year, Dartmouth will begin competition in the conference on the road in a rematch of the previous year's Ivy Championship Series. In 2011, the Big Green played a twinbill at Columbia to kick off the league portion of the schedule, after defeating the Lions in the ICS in 2010. This year, Dartmouth travels to Princeton with an eye of exacting some revenge for its three-game defeat in the 2011 series before making the trek to Ithaca to play a doubleheader at Cornell.

The Big Green have won four straight Rolfe Division titles and two Ivy championships in the past three years. Since divisional play began in 1993, only Princeton has claimed more consecutive divisional crowns, winning nine in a row from 1996-2004.

Last Week in Review
•   Dartmouth played just once during the week, knocking off Amherst in the home opener, 5-2.
•   The victory not only ended a six-game skid, the longest for the Big Green since the start of the 2009 season, but also extended the winning streak at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park to 25 games, the longest among Division I teams across the nation.
•   Seven Dartmouth pitchers took the mound, holding the Lord Jeffs hitless through five innings. Freshman starter Adam Frank, who was scheduled to throw just one inning, was credited with the win after retiring all three batters he faced as the Big Green took a 2-0 lead in the bottom half and never relinquished it.
•   Junior Chris O'Dowd and sophomore Dustin Selzer were the heroes at the plate, each collecting two hits while combining to drive in three runs.

Last Time Against the Tigers
It was last May when these two teams squared off in the Ivy Championship Series. Princeton kept the Big Green from a third consecutive crown by winning the first and third contests of the three-game series. With a 3-2 lead in game one, the Tigers broke open the game with two runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth for a 9-2 victory. Dartmouth battled back in game two, rallying from a 4-0 deficit in the seventh. Jeff Onstott belted a two-run bomb in the inning, and Jason Brooks capped a three-run eighth with a two-out, two-run double for a 5-4 triumph. But the Tigers would not be denied on their home field, scoring in five of the first six innings of the rubber game, fending off the Green in an 8-5 ballgame.

The Overall Record vs. Princeton
•   The Tigers have the advantage in the all-time series, going 91-82 against Dartmouth.
•   Over the last seven seasons, the Big Green have won 13 of the 17 meetings.
•   Dartmouth has matched the Tigers at Clarke Field, which debuted in the expansion year of 1961, with the two sides splitting 50 games evenly.
•   Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has a 21-31 record against the Tigers.
•   The two teams first met on the diamond in 1880 with Princeton winning both contests, 2-0 and 9-4. The Tigers won 17 of the first 18 games.

Scouting the Tigers
•   Like Dartmouth, Princeton put together a challenging non-conference slate, splitting four games at Florida Atlantic before losing four games to nationally ranked teams — three to South Carolina and another to North Carolina. But the Tigers have also taken two of three from Richmond and Navy.
•   The entire lineup is back from a year ago, including Ivy Player of the Year candidate Sam Mulroy, who is batting .397/.472/.714 with five home runs and 20 RBIs. As a team Princeton is hitting .278/.364/.392 and averaging 6.3 runs per game.
•   Much like the lineup, the pitching staff is pretty much intact from last season with all four weekend starters and the closer returning. The team ERA of 6.59 is quite a bit higher than last season's 4.84, which can be attributed to the level of competition to date.
•   In the field, the Tigers have been quite solid with a .971 fielding percentage. But 10 of their 15 errors have come at second, third and short.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   Dartmouth Head Coach Bob Whalen has tabbed junior LHP Kyle Hunter (0-1, 8.47) to start the first game on Saturday, as he did all last season. After struggling with his control in his last start at Cal Poly, Hunter got a little tune-up on Wednesday with a perfect inning of relief against Amherst. The second game will feature freshman LHP Adam Frank (1-1, 8.18), who got the win in that game versus Amherst with his scheduled one-inning start.
•   Princeton will counter with a pair of right-handers in sophomore Mike Ford (0-3, 6.19), who tossed four scoreless innings of relief on Sunday at Navy, and junior Zak Hermans (2-1, 4.71) who has victories over Florida Atlantic and Richmond.

Last Time Against the Big Red
Dartmouth swept a home doubleheader against Cornell last April 9, but both games were low-scoring affairs. In the seven-inning game, Kyle Hunter had a 1-0 lead in the seventh, only to have his shutout ruined on a single, a wild pitch and another single with one down. Hunter pitched through the ninth with the tie score intact, but Brian Billigen touched reliever Ryan Smith for a two-out solo home run in the 10th. The Big Green rallied in the bottom half on an RBI triple by Joe Sclafani and the game-winning single by Jason Brooks for a 3-2 win. After Hunter struck out a career-high 10 in the opener, Cole Sulser fanned a personal-best 13 while tossing all nine frames in the nightcap to earn a 4-2 triumph. Ennis Coble hit what turned out to be the winning two-run triple in the eighth before Cornell tacked on an unearned run in the ninth.

The Overall Record vs. Cornell
•   Dartmouth has squared off against the Big Red 165 times, owning an 89-75-1 record.
•   The Big Green have won 17 of the past 22 meetings, dating back to the 2002 season. That includes the 2009 Ivy Championship Series, which the Green won, two games to one.
•   Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has a 30-17 mark in games against Cornell.
•   The first games in the series took place on April 10-11, 1906, with Cornell winning both games.

Scouting the Big Red
•   Cornell has gotten off to an impressive start and stands as the only team in the league with a winning record in non-conference play at 13-4-1. But only two games have come against teams with an RPI greater than 170, and both were Big Red losses at Virginia Tech.
•   The offense has been quite prolific with a slash line of .327/.412/.459 entering the weekend. At the beginning of the week, Cornell had the fourth highest batting average in the country and was in the top 15 in on-base percentage, slugging and runs per game.
•   Outfielder Brian Billigen began the week 17th in the nation with a .433 average, and during the week bumped it up to .452. Only Chris Cruz has more homers (6) than Billigen (4), as the duo has supplied 10 of the Big Red's 11 long balls this year.
•   Brent Jones leads the pitching staff with a 1.44 ERA in four starts with three complete games. As a team, Cornell sports a 3.50 ERA and has held opponents to a .250 batting average.
•   The Big Red have a .963 fielding percentage with 23 errors in 18 games, although the left side of the infield has had its issues with miscues.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   As against Princeton, the Big Green will feature two southpaws against Cornell, beginning with sophomore LHP Mitch Horacek (1-1, 6.63). After a rough outing at LSU, Horacek has pitched well in each of his last two starts, striking out 13 batters without a walk in 14 innings. Junior LHP Michael Johnson (1-1, 4.96), who had a personal five-game winning streak snapped in a 5-4 loss at UC Irvine, will get the ball for the nightcap
•   The Big Red will send a pair of right-handers to the mound in Rick Marks (2-1, 2.86) and Connor Kaufmann (3-1, 7.56). Opponents have hit just .207 against Marks, but he has walked 13 batters in 22 innings. Kaufmann has better peripheral numbers than his ERA, yielding 19 hits — just one for extra bases — in 16.2 innings.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth begins a six-game homestand when it hosts Saint Anselm on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Next weekend, Penn and Columbia come to town for twinbills on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, as the Big Green finish up play against the Gehrig Division for the season.

Home Cooking
Since its home field was renovated before the 2009 season, Dartmouth has enjoyed exceptional success at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park with a 43-5 record for an .896 winning percentage. The Big Green have won 25 consecutive games at the venue, the longest streak among Division I teams.

Climbing the Career Ladder
Not in the job market, mind you, but in the career statistical lists at Dartmouth. Senior Joe Sclafani ranks among the Big Green's all-time top 10 in four categories, including tied for the lead with 16 triples. He currently sits in seventh with 186 hits and will very likely become the fifth Dartmouth player to collect 200 in a career. In addition, he is fourth with 138 runs and tied for fifth with 79 walks.

Rookies Producing
The freshman class as a group have seen quite a bit of time on the diamond, particularly in the lineup. The rookies have 149 at-bats thus far (just one less than the senior class) and are hitting .275 combined with eight doubles and 25 RBIs. Matt Robinson has a .435 average and five two-hit games to his credit in the seven contests in which he has appeared. On the mound, freshman Thomas Olson has a save and an ERA (2.08), less than half of anyone else on the staff.

Ivy Team of the 2000s
In the 12 seasons since the calendar flipped to 2000, no baseball team in the Ivy League has had more success than the Big Green. Dartmouth has a league record of 147-93 (.613) in that span, with Princeton second at 141-99 (.588).

Schedules