Baseball Falls Just Short of Comeback Win Against Indiana

Friday, March 6

Port Charlotte, Fla.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

0-4

Indiana

6-4

Dartmouth

Indiana

Baseball Falls Just Short of Comeback Win Against Indiana

3/6/2015 10:54:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — After surrendering seven runs in the second inning, Dartmouth battled back to within a run before succumbing to Indiana in the Big Green's first game at the Snowbird Classic, a sloppy 8-6 affair that featured nine errors. Logan Sowers had three hits and scored twice for the Hoosiers (6-4) as they won their second game of the day after beating Villanova earlier, 4-3.

Eight of the nine hitters in the starting lineup for Dartmouth (0-4) had at least one hit, led by seniors Matt Parisi and Nick Lombardi, as well as junior Joe Purritano, each with a single and a double in the 11-hit attack.

After escaping a first-inning jam by inducing a double-play grounder, junior right-hander Duncan Robinson (0-1) was not as fortunate in the second as the Hoosiers strung together four consecutive hits to start the stanza. Nick Ramos provided the first blow with an RBI triple and Austin Cangelosi followed with a single. After the third run came home on the second out, Indiana rapped out four more run-scoring singles, the final one off the bat of Sowers to give him two hits in the frame, to take a 7-0 lead.

Dartmouth was not deterred by the sudden deficit as junior Nick Ruppert ripped a two-run triple to center in the top of the third. Purritano then stroked a double to plate Ruppert, and after Lombardi singled him to third, freshman Kyle Holbrook plated a fourth run with a ground ball.

The bats kept pecking away in the fourth as sophomore Ben Socher led off with a single, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Purritano, who took second when the ball eluded the center fielder. Lombardi then scalded a double to center, making it a one-run game at 7-6.

But Hoosier starter Christian Morris pitched a scoreless fifth to qualify for the win before giving way to his bullpen, which tossed four shutout innings to close out the win for Indiana.

Brian Hobbie retired all six batters he faced before the Hoosiers tacked on an unearned insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. Sowers dumped a single to left and took third when a pickoff attempt went into the right-field corner. Reliever Adam Frank got the next two outs without Sowers going anywhere, then hit Will Nolden with a pitch. After a pitching change, Indiana pulled off a double steal for a little breathing room with an 8-6 lead.

In the eighth, reliever Austin Foote recorded the first out before surrendering a single. Luke Harrison came on and had the tying runs on second and third due to an error, but induced an infield pop to preserve the Hoosier two-run lead. In the ninth, he allowed a two-out single before getting the third out for his first save of the young season.

Morris (2-0) earned the victory despite giving up six runs, four earned, on nine hits in five innings of work. But the right-hander did not walk a batter and struck out seven.

Robinson had just the one bad inning, but it was enough to hand him his first loss of the year as he yielded seven runs, six earned over five frames on 11 hits and a walk while striking out five.

Four Indiana hitters had two hits to complement Sowers, and the top seven hitters in the lineup all drove in a single run.

Both Ruppert and Purritano drove in two runs, while the latter and Socher scored twice for Dartmouth.

The Big Green will play twice tomorrow with another Big Ten opponent in Northwestern on tap at noon and Ball State scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.