Two Wins on Senior Day Extends Baseball's Streak to 12

Saturday, April 25

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

17-19, 13-4

HARVARD

18-21, 7-10

Harvard

Dartmouth

Two Wins on Senior Day Extends Baseball's Streak to 12

4/25/2015 6:12:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Freshmen stole the show in the first game on Dartmouth's Senior Day, but the seniors grabbed the spotlight in the nightcap as the Big Green swept an Ivy League doubleheader from the visiting Harvard Crimson at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park on Saturday afternoon. Dartmouth (18-19, 14-4 Ivy) won the first game going away, 8-1, then rallied for a 4-3 victory in the nightcap to extend its winning streak to 12 games.

Harvard had its losking skid stretched to five games to fall to 18-22 on the season and 7-11 in league play.

Freshman Kyle Holbrook went 2-for-2 with three runs and three RBIs, all of which came on his first collegiate home run, while classmate Dustin Shirley ripped a two-run single in the opener to support sophomore Mike Concato (4-3) on the mound. The right-hander completed six innings and allowed just one run while weaving in and out of trouble for most of the game, surrendering seven hits and an uncharacteristic three walks (he entered the day having issued four free passes in 43 innings) while striking out four.

Dartmouth took a quick 1-0 lead without the aid of a hit in the first inning. Sophomore Ben Socher and senior Nick Lombardi both walked and found themselves on the corners before pulling off a nifty double steal. After the Crimson tied the score and three consecutive two-out singles in the top of the second, Shirley put the Big Green back on top by shooting a single up the middle through a drawn-in infield, scoring junior Nick Ruppert and Holbrook for a 3-1 lead.

Lombardi hit a rope off the wall in left-center for an RBI double in the third, and another senior, Matt Parisi, lined a two-out double into the left-field corner in the fourth to allow Holbrook to score, who led off the frame with a single, to make it a 5-1 game.

Holbrook then ended Sean Poppen's afternoon on the mound by driving a 1-0 fastball over the fence in right for a three-run blast in the fifth, completing the scoring in the contest.

Poppen (4-3), who had not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his previous four league starts, was roughed up for eight runs, seven earned, in 4.2 innings on seven hits and four walks without a single strikeout. Drew Reid led Harvard at the plate with three of the team's nine hits.

It looked as if Harvard would finally end a personal 10-game losing streak to the Big Green in the second game. Matt Timoney handcuffed the Dartmouth hitters over the first six innings, limiting them to a mere two hits and no runs, while the Crimson bats provided the Ivy League's leader in wins with three runs against junior Duncan Robinson.

Connor Quinn beat out an infield hit with two outs in the second, enabling Ethan Ferreira to score from third for a 1-0 Harvard lead. Ferreira belted an 0-1 pitch over the netting in left field onto Park Street in the fourth for his fifth home run of the season to make it 2-0. And the Crimson manufactured a run in the sixth when Mike Martin hit a 27-hopper through the hole between short and third, stole second, took third on a grounder to short and scored on Jake McGuiggan's long fly to right.

After Robinson put a goose egg on the board in the top of the seventh, Dartmouth finally strung together some hits in its half. Junior Joe Purritano led off by hitting a liner to left-center, then hustling into second for a double. Lombardi followed with a single over the second baseman's outstretched glove, and freshman pinch hitter Justin Fowler walked to load the bases with nobody out.

When Holbrook punched a 3-1 pitch to right for an RBI single, Harvard turned to sidewinding reliever T.J. Laurisch. His first pitch produced a comebacker, but the Crimson only got one out at the plate. Senior Matt MacDowell worked the count full before lining a single back through the box to bring home two and tie the score at three. A bunt moved the two runners up to second and third, and Parisi followed by stroking a solid single to left, bringing home the fourth and final run.

The Dartmouth bullpen did the rest as sophomore Chris Burkholder and freshman Patrick Peterson each tossed a perfect inning with the latter recording his fifth save of the year. Robinson (5-2) earned his fourth straight victory after allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits and a walk while striking out six. In his five league starts, he boasts an ERA of just 1.31.

Parisi, Purritano and Holbrook each had two hits in the game, and Holbrook finished the day 4-for-6 with four runs and four RBIs.

Timoney (6-2) suffered the loss as all four runs were charged to him. He yielded five hits and a pair of walks to go with four strikeouts.

The two teams will conclude their four-game series at Harvard's O'Donnell field with a doubleheader on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth clinched its eighth straight Rolfe Division title last weekend, but was eliminated from the possibility of hosting the Ivy League Championship Series due to a series split between Brown and Yale. The Big Green will travel to either Penn or Columbia next weekend if one of the two sweeps a doubleheader from the other on Sunday … should the Quakers and Lions split the twinbill, they will play a one-game playoff next weekend to determine the Gehrig representative in the ILCS, which would be moved to May 9-10.