Third Straight Year ILCS Comes Down to Dartmouth and Columbia

Eighth Straight Trip to ILCS
Dartmouth secured its eighth straight division title even before facing Harvard in the final weekend to advance to the Ivy League Championship Series. For the fifth time in those eight years (and third consecutive), the Big Green are traveling to Columbia to take on the Lions in the best-of-three series to determine the league champion.

The Big Green are 2-5 in those seven trips, winning one of the four against the Lions. Not only did Columbia win by a sweep the last two years in the Bronx, but also won the initial matchup in Hanover in 2008 in three games. Dartmouth exacted its revenge two years later on the Lions' field, recovering from a loss in game one to take the last two.

Dartmouth (20-20, 16-4)
at Columbia (27-14, 16-4)
Robertson Field at Satow Stadium, New York, N.Y.

Saturday, May 9, Noon DH
Possible Starters
Game 1: RHP Duncan Robinson (5-2, 2.62) vs. RHP George Thanopoulos (4-4, 3.43)
Video: Ivy League Digital Network • Live Stats
Game 2: RHP Mike Concato (4-3, 2.57) vs. RHP Kevin Roy (4-3, 3.08)
Video: Ivy League Digital Network • Live Stats

Sunday, May 10, 1 p.m. (if necessary)
Possible Starters
RHP Louis Concato (1-5, 4.96) vs. LHP Mike Weisman (4-1, 3.27)
Video: Ivy League Digital Network • Live Stats

Last Week in Review
•   Dartmouth has not played since its 14-game winning streak came to a screeching halt against Amherst on April 28 by a 15-4 final. So let's look back at the last two weeks.
•   The Big Green entered its final four-game Ivy series against Harvard with the division crown in their possession. But hosting rights for the ILCS were still a possibility (though very remote), giving Dartmouth something to shoot for.
•   Needing a sweep of the Crimson, the Big Green went to work at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park, sweeping a doubleheader by finals of 8-1 and 4-3.
•   Mike Concato picked up the win in the first game with six innings of one-run ball, and Kyle Holbrook was a perfect 2-for-2 with three runs and a three-run homer to lead the offense.
•   The second game was a different story as Dartmouth entered the seventh trailing, 3-0. But the Green rallied for four runs with Matt MacDowell tying the score with a two-run single and Matt Parisi providing the winning hit. Chris Burkholder and Patrick Peterson came on to seal the victory for Duncan Robinson.
•   At Harvard, the Crimson tied the first game in the bottom of the seventh, but Dustin Shirley provided a two-out, two-run single in the extra eighth to lift the Big Green to a 6-4 triumph.
•   Jay Graham stole the show in the finale, going 3-for-5 with his first career home run and three RBIs to make a winner out of Chris England in a 7-2 victory.

Last Time Against the Lions
These two teams played each other at this very field back at the end of March, splitting the two contests with Dartmouth winning the opener, 5-4, before Columbia beat the Big Green for the first time at home during the regular season in eight years with a 4-1 victory.

Mike Concato outdueled Kevin Roy in the first game as Dartmouth roughed up the Lion right-hander for five runs, four earned, in five-plus innings. Roy has since yielded a total of four runs in 27.1 innings. The Big Green scored three in the third and two more in the sixth, which proved important when Columbia added two in the bottom half to keep the Dartmouth lead at one. But Concato finished off the Lions in the seventh to preserve the Big Green win.

In the nightcap, Mike Weisman held the Dartmouth hitters scoreless over 6.2 innings, surrendering just two hits while striking out two. It took four relievers to finish off the Green, which scored their lone run in the ninth and had the bases loaded with one out before Harrison Egly fanned the final two batters. Gus Craig went 2-for-4 with two runs and a triple while David Vanderbook had three hits and an RBI. Catcher Adam Gauthier had two of Dartmouth's three hits in the game, and Louis Concato took the loss for giving up all four runs in 4.2 innings of work.

Dartmouth in the ILCS
Date	Opponent		Score	W/L
2000
May 6	at Princeton		2-5 3-4	L L
2001
May 5 May 6	Princeton	(10)	6-5 7-16 5-6	W L L
2004
May 8	Princeton	(10)	3-14 4-5	L L
2008
May 6 May 7	Columbia		7-11 16-15 5-7	L W L
2009
May 2 May 3	Cornell		8-6 12-14 10-0	W L W
2010
May 8 May 9	at Columbia		2-13 15-10 11-5	L W W
2011
May 7 May 8	at Princeton		2-9 5-4 5-8	L W L
2012
May 5 May 6	at Cornell	(11)	3-11 7-1 1-3	L W L
2013
May 4	at Columbia	(10)	5-6 5-12	L L
2014
May 10	at Columbia		2-6 1-4	L L

The Overall Record vs. Columbia
•   Dartmouth owns a fairly sizable advantage in the all-time series, 104-75.
•   This has become a serious rivalry of late as evidenced by the numerous meetings in the ILCS in the past decade. The Lions beat the Green in Hanover in 2008, two games to one, and Dartmouth returned the favor in 2010 on Columbia's home turf. Each of the last two years were also played in New York with the Lions sweeping the series.
•   Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has a 38-24 mark in games against Columbia.
•   Columbia has been playing on FieldTurf at its home park — Robertson Field at Satow Stadium — since 2008. The Big Green are 9-6 on it (7-1 in the regular season) and 17-14 in New York since the divisional format was installed for the Ivy League in 1993.

Scouting the Lions
•   Columbia leads the league in numerous categories, including run differential (+1.8), home runs (39), stolen bases (55), and pitcher strikeouts (269), not to mention victories and RPI (65), which is half of Dartmouth's at 130.
•   At the plate, Big Green pitchers will see a predominantly left-handed lineup with five regulars batting from that side of the plate, including DH Joey Falcone and outfielder Gus Craig, both with team-leading .340 averages and a combined 16 home runs.
•   Center fielder Jordan Serena is the catalyst at the top of the order with a .400 OBP and 19 stolen bases, while third baseman David Vandercook has a career .389 average with 10 extra-base hits in 36 at-bats against the Big Green.
•   The pitching staff sports a 4.04 ERA (and an even better 2.79 in Ivy play) with an accomplished four-man rotation. The bullpen features five pitchers with ERAs under four with at least 14 innings with Harrison Egly posting five of the team's 13 saves.
•   The Lion defense is solid with a .965 fielding percentage and no player with more than eight errors. No team in the league turned more than Columbia's 35 double plays, and the defense gunned down one-third of would-be base stealers.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   Neither team has announced its starters, but I'm guessing game one will feature junior RHP Duncan Robinson (5-2, 2.62) against Lion RHP George Thanopoulos (4-4, 3.43). Both pitchers last faced the other team in 2014, and pitched well. Robinson went 1-1, yielding three unearned runs over 11 innings in two outings while Thanopoulos had a 1.86 ERA in 9.2 innings over three appearances, earning a victory and a save.
•   In the second game on Saturday, look for a rematch of the first game between the two earlier this year — sophomore RHP Mike Concato (4-3, 2.57) against RHP Kevin Roy (4-3, 3.08). Both surrendered four earned runs, but Dartmouth took advantage of an unearned run to help Concato get a 5-4 win as he went the distance. Roy, however, is 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA in his 16 career innings.
•   Should the series go to three games, expect another rematch as Dartmouth could turn to senior RHP Louis Concato (1-5, 4.91) with Columbia going to LHP Mike Weisman (4-1, 3.27), who hurled 6.2 scoreless innings against the Green on just two hits to beat the elder Concato back in March, 4-1.

What's Up Next
Whichever team wins this series will earn the Ivy League's automatic berth into the NCAA Regionals, which begin on May 29 at various sites that will be announced at a later date.

Keep Up with the Action
Each of the games this weekend will be streamed live on Big Green Insider via the Ivy League Digital Network. Visit IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com to find out how to subscribe so you can watch all of the action.

Rolfe Division Champs Again
For the eighth straight year, Dartmouth is the Rolfe Division champion, finishing a whopping nine games ahead of Harvard in the standings, the largest margin ever in the 23 seasons of divisional play. And only one Ivy team has strung together a longer streak of division titles as Princeton won the Gehrig nine years in a row from 1996-2004.
This is also the 11th time Dartmouth has played in the Ivy League Championship Series, matching Princeton for the most appearances. And the Big Green are playing the ILCS on the road for the fifth consecutive year, beating Columbia in 2010 before losing the last four (at Princeton in 2011, at Cornell in 2012, and at Columbia in 2013 and '14).

Why Isn't Dartmouth Hosting?
Glad you asked. The Ivy League employs a tiebreaker system to determine which team hosts the ILCS should the division winners have identical records. Since Dartmouth and Columbia split two games, the next determining factor is how each team did against the team's with the next-best league records. Both teams split series with Penn, but Columbia swept four games from Cornell while the Big Green split two, giving the Lions hosting rights.

14-Game Win Streak Ends
Due to a 15-4 loss to Amherst in the final game of the regular season, the Big Green won't have the burden of an extended winning streak to worry about on top of trying to win the ILCS (that's what is known as a silver lining). Dartmouth had won 14 straight games, the third longest winning streak in program history and 11th of at least 10 games, four of which have come since 2009. The Green have also won at least seven games in a row in every season since 2008 when the division title streak began. The school record is 21 straight wins in 1970, the year Dartmouth advanced to the College World Series.

Parisi on Wallace Award Watch List
Senior Matt Parisi was one of 47 Division I players to be named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List, which is bestowed upon the nation's top shortstop. Parisi leads the team in eight offensive categories (including his .382 on-base percentage), and ranks among the Ivy League's top 10 in four of those categories — doubles (17, t-1st), hits (49, t-7th), batting average (.338, 8th) and total bases (68, t-10th). He has been just as good in the field, recording a .968 fielding percentage with a mere five errors (none in Ivy play) while tying for the league lead with 108 assists.

Holbrook Ivy Rookie of the Week
As has become custom in recent years, a Dartmouth freshman took home the last Ivy League Rookie of the Week award with Kyle Holbrook being selected by the conference office. The outfielder hit .500 against Harvard (7-for-14) with five runs and six RBIs in the four-game sweep, not to mention his first career home run. He also produced a .563 OBP and .714 slugging percentage, and since hitting just .102 through his first 18 games, he has raised his average 131 points by hitting .368 over his last 19 contests. In each of the past two seasons, a Dartmouth player won the honor after the last week of play — Mike Concato in 2014 and Joe Purritano in 2013.

Runs Harder to Come By
Dartmouth has averaged 4.23 runs per game this year, the third-lowest figure during Bob Whalen's 26-year tenure as head coach. That has led to some desperate measures to push a run across the plate, including a league-leading 29 sacrifice bunts, which are the most ever at Dartmouth. The top three bunters in the league are all Big Green hitters — Matt MacDowell (7), Ben Socher (6) and Bo Patterson (5).

Triples Machine Joe Purritano
Junior Joe Purritano is one of 20 Big Green players to hit two triples in a game, but he became the first to do it twice in a season and second to do it twice in a career when he ripped two three-baggers against Amherst on April 28. He also hit two against UMass Lowell in the first game of a doubleheader on April 14 (and another in the second game), giving him an Ivy-leading five on the season. Oddly enough, the feat has been accomplished 11 times during Bob Whalen's 26 seasons, all by players with a first name that begins with the letter 'J' — Joe Tosone, Jake Isler (twice), James Little, Joe Rockers, Jason Blydell, Joe Sclafani, Jason Brooks, Jeff Keller and now Joe Purritano (twice).

April Aces
Both Duncan Robinson and Mike Concato enjoyed pitching in the month of April. The former won all four of his starts while posting a 0.96 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 28 innings, and the latter went 3-1 with a 1.29 ERA, also in 28 innings. The lone loss for the duo was a 1-0 defeat against Cornell at the beginning of the month. The Big Green are hoping the pair can continue their surge into May with the starts in the ILCS.

Defense Continues to be Strength
The Big Green fielders have committed just 33 errors this season; only Florida has fewer errors on its ledger among Division I teams with 26. Dartmouth's .976 fielding percentage is 24th nationally, a ranking that has become commonplace. In the six complete seasons since the turf was installed at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park, the Big Green have finished in the top 25 in fielding four times.

Big Green Banter
•   Not only did shortstop Matt Parisi not make an error against in Ivy play, he was second in the league with 57 assists.
•   Dartmouth has just eight homers as a team. Only twice in the past 40 years have the Big Green had fewer — 1989 and '92 (seven both years).
•   Freshman Patrick Peterson earned a win or save in each of his seven Ivy appearances, and led the league with four saves in conference games.
•   Parisi hit 12 doubles in Ivy games, one shy of the league record. He is also tied for the league lead with 17 doubles for the entire season.
•   During the 14-game win streak, the Big Green hitting .284 while averaging 6.4 runs a game, plus sported a 2.97 ERA and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of just under 4-to-1.
•   Mike Concato earned his sixth career win in the 8-1 victory against Harvard on April 25. But it was his first win in which he did not throw a complete game, going six stanzas and allowing one run in the seven-inning contest.
•   The Big Green have won both extra-inning games this year, the latest at Harvard on April 26, 6-4, and they are 5-1 in extras in the past two seasons.
•   Nick Lombardi had four RBIs in the 8-7 win over Brown, the ninth time in his career he has driven in exactly four runs in a game, which is more often than he has driven in two (8 times) or three (7).
•   Speaking of Nicks, Nick Ruppert stole three bases in that 8-7 win as well, making him the first Big Green player to swipe three bags in a game since Ennis Coble '13 did so against Harvard on April 28, 2013.
•   When Dartmouth beat Brown, 2-1, it was the first game in which the Big Green won with no more than two hits since beating Harvard by the same score on May 11, 1991.
•   Chris Burkholder, who gave up four hits and no walks to with 11 strikeouts in nine innings in April, picked up his first win of the year with three-plus innings in the 6-5 win over Brown.
•   Against Brown, the Big Green won three consecutive games by one run for the first time since winning their final four contests of the 1991 season.
•   Duncan Robinson has been touched for more than one run in an inning just three times all year.
•   Odd duck: Justin Fowler only likes to hit in the odd innings, batting .370 (10-for-27) in those frames, but just .080 (2-for-25) in the even innings.

Handling Harvard
Over the past five seasons, Dartmouth has had little trouble in dispatching the Crimson during the final Ivy weekend, and this year was no different as the Big Green swept the four-game series. Dartmouth has now won its last 13 games against Harvard and gone 19-1 over the last five seasons. Add in the last two games in 2010 and the Green have 21 wins in their last 22 games versus the Crimson.

Graham (Fire)Cracker
Senior Jay Graham has done a little of everything for Dartmouth, from playing a corner infield position to pitching on occasion. Entering the last game at Harvard, however, he had just six at-bats this year without a hit. That didn't last long as Graham pummeled a pitch over the fence in left-center in the first inning for his first career homer. He went on to go 3-for-5 with a career-high three RBIs in the 7-2 win.

Shirley You're Not Serious
Dartmouth had a 4-3 lead in the seventh and final inning evaporate in the first game of the doubleheader at Harvard on April 26, but that merely led to the heroics by Dustin Shirley. The freshman came to the plate in the eighth with the bases loaded and two out, and delivered the game-winning two-run single to help extend the Big Green's winning streak to 13 games at that point.

Rallying for a Win
Trailing Harvard 3-0 in the seventh inning of the second game in Hanover, Dartmouth rallied for four runs in the frame and a 4-3 victory. It was just the second time all year that the Big Green had come from behind when trailing after six innings. The first was a 4-3 triumph at Penn on March 29 in which Dartmouth scored one in the eighth and three in the ninth to pull out the win.

Freshmen Surging
Several of the freshmen on the roster have come around at the plate of late to provide a boost to the offense. Kyle Holbrook hit .356 during the month of April with a .451 on-base percentage and 13 RBIs, while Dustin Shirley hit .279 with 10 RBIs during the 14-game winning streak. On top of that, Justin Fowler hit .348 in 23 at-bats in April.

Pitching, Defense Shining of Late
After a 1-14 start, Dartmouth finished the year 19-6 thanks to a pitching staff that posted a 3.26 ERA and a defense that has committed just 13 errors for a sparkling .985 fielding percentage. Only six times in those 25 games did the Big Green allow even five runs, five of which were victories. As a result, the staff ERA has dropped from 6.64 to 4.53 and the team fielding is back on top of the Ivy League (where it has been the last three years).

Easy Parisi in Ivy
Senior Matt Parisi was Dartmouth's best hitter against the Ivy League throughout the season, boasting a .356 average (26-for-73) in the 20 games with a conference-best 12 doubles, a triple, 15 runs and 12 RBIs. Kyle Holbrook (.327) and Nick Ruppert (.333) were the only other Big Green hitters over .280. To top it off, Parisi has played flawlessly at shortstop, fielding 81 chances without an error.

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