Sweep at Harvard Pushes Winning Streak to 14

Sunday, April 26

Cambridge, Mass.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

19-19, 15-4

Harvard

18-23, 7-12

Dartmouth

Harvard

4/26/2015 6:05:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Dartmouth completed a clean sweep of the other Rolfe Division teams in the Ivy League by winning both ends of a doubleheader at Harvard on Saturday, taking the first game in extra innings, 6-4, before cruising to a 7-2 triumph in the nightcap. This is the first time in the 23 seasons of divisional play that the Big Green (20-19, 16-4 Ivy) won all 12 games against the other three teams in their division, and currently boast a 14-game win streak, the third longest in program history.

Dartmouth will have to wait a week to find out which team from the Gehrig Division it will play in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series as the defending Ivy champ, Columbia, tied with Penn at the top of the standings with identical 16-4 records. The two will play a one-game playoff next weekend at Columbia's Robertson Field at Satow Stadium, and the winner of that game will host the ILCS on May 9-10.

Harvard (18-24, 7-13 Ivy) ended its season on a seven-game skid, though it nearly pulled out the first game of the day. Trailing 4-3 in the seventh and final frame, Jack Colton hustled for a two-out double against starter Louis Concato. Freshman Patrick Peterson came on to try and get the final out, but Mike Martin managed to hit a dribbler through the right side, and Colton slid into home just ahead of the throw from right fielder Kyle Holbrook to tie the score at four.

But Crimson reliever Nick Gruener (3-4), who had come on to pitch in the seventh and retired the side in order, quickly got into trouble in the eighth as senior Nick Lombardi and Holbrook led off the inning with singles. After a sacrifice bunt by junior Nick Ruppert, Gruener struck out a pinch hitter but hit senior Matt MacDowell to load the bases. The ninth-place hitter in the order, freshman Dustin Shirley, then dumped the first pitch he saw over the shortstop's head for a two-run single and a 6-4 lead.

In the bottom half, Harvard put two runners on with one down, only to have Peterson induce a double play to end the game and pick up his fourth victory against no defeats.

Dartmouth opened the game by scoring three runs in the top of the first with a little help from the Harvard defense. After loading the bases on a bunt single and a pair of walks, Holbrook hit a grounder that got past the second baseman for an error that allowed two runs to score. Ruppert followed by stroking an RBI single between short and third for the 3-0 lead.

Concato made quick work of the Crimson in the first two innings, but was touched for three runs (only one earned) in the third. Colton singled with one out and took second when the throw back to the infield skipped away. Concato got Martin to wave at strike three, but the pitch was in the dirt and went to the backstop, allowing Martin to reach and Colton to take third. The first Harvard run came courtesy of an RBI single off the bat of Drew Reid, and Jake McGuiggan lofted a sacrifice fly before Ethan Ferreira boomed a triple to deep right-center, tying the game at three.

The score remained knotted until the Big Green loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth. Harvard starter Tanner Anderson got the first out on strikes, but MacDowell hit into a force play and beat the relay to first, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

Holbrook was the only Dartmouth hitter with two hits, while Lombardi reached base three times on two walks and a single, and scored all three times for half of the Big Green runs. Concato did not get a decision, but pitched well in his 6.2 innings, allowing four runs, two earned, on seven hits without walking a batter and striking out four.

In the final game, senior Jay Graham stole the show. Inserted into the cleanup spot with just six at-bats all season, the veteran launched his first career home run over the bushes beyond the fence in left-center for a 2-0 lead in the first. He added an RBI single in the fifth and another line single in the seventh, then was robbed of another run-scoring single on a spectacular diving play on his liner in the ninth by the Crimson second baseman, Matt Rothenberg.

Freshman Justin Fowler added a two-run double in the fifth as Dartmouth built up a 5-0 lead for senior starter Chris England. Harvard got two runs back in the sixth when Ferreira laced a two-out, two-run double. But the Crimson bats were held in check over the final three frames by senior left-hander Adam Frank (two shutout innings) and sophomore Chris Burkholder (scoreless ninth with two strikeouts).

Lombardi and Holbrook added some insurance in the ninth with RBI singles as well.

Joining Graham with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate was sophomore Ben Socher, and both scored twice while Graham led the way with a career-high three RBIs. Lombardi and Fowler added two hits apiece as the Big Green banged out 13 safeties in the game.

England (2-2) pitched six innings for the victory, yielding two runs on seven hits and no walks with just one strikeout. Taking the loss was Ian Miller (2-3), who surrendered five runs, three earned, over 4.1 innings with a walk and two punchouts.

Dartmouth has one final tune up scheduled before the ILCS when it hosts Amherst on Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Notes: The two wins today put Dartmouth over .500 for the first time this season. The Big Green began the year 1-14 … Dartmouth has won 13 straight against Harvard and 21 of the past 22 meetings ... the Big Green have had winning streaks of 10 or more games 11 times in 143 seasons. Five have come during the 26-year tenure of current head coach Bob Whalen … Dartmouth reached 20 wins for the seventh time in the last eight years and 24th time overall (15 times under Whalen).