Big Green Split on First Day of ILCS, Decisive Game on Sunday

Saturday, May 9

New York, N.Y.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

21-20

Columbia

27-15

Dartmouth

Columbia

Big Green Split on First Day of ILCS, Decisive Game on Sunday

5/9/2015 6:28:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The Dartmouth baseball team defeated Columbia, 7-6, in a wild opening game of the Ivy League Championship Series at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium, but the host Lions rebounded to take game two, 7-2, to force a decisive third game on Sunday at 1 p.m. Duncan Robinson struck out seven in seven innings to earn the win in the first game for the Big Green (21-21), while Kevin Roy gave up just one earned run over 6.1 innings in the nightcap to help Columbia (28-15) survive the day).

Dartmouth never trailed in the first game and led by as many as six runs, beginning with a two-out, two-run homer by senior Matt Parisi to straight-away center in the third, his first of the year. In the fourth, the Big Green took advantage of wildness on the part of Lion starter George Thanopoulos to extend their lead to five.

Joe Purritano and Nick Lombardi both walked to start the inning before a fielder's choice put runners on the corners with one out. A pitch to junior Nick Ruppert then squirted to the backstop, but was recovered nicely by catcher Logan Boyher who threw to Thanopoulos covering the plate ahead of Purritano, only to put the tag down on the plate instead of the runner. Another walk to Ruppert and a stolen base gave Dartmouth men on second and third with two down. Senior Matt MacDowell then lined a shot that first baseman Nick Maguire was able to knock down with a dive, but MacDowell beat the throw to first. Thanopoulos also lost the ball covering on the play, which allowed both runners to score for a 5-0 Big Green lead.

Teammates mob Matt Parisi after his third-inning home run in the opening game of the ILCS on Saturday afternoon. (courtesy Mike McLaughlin)

A pair of double plays helped Robinson in the first four innings, but Columbia touched him for its first run in the fifth. Maguire took first with two out when it was ruled he was hit by a pitch in the dirt, and Will Savage reached on a high chopper over the mound for a single. Boyher provided the run-scoring hit with a bounder between short and third.

Dartmouth answered in the top of the sixth when Michael Ketchmark ripped a double into the left-field corner off reliever Mike Weisman, scoring Lombardi and Kyle Holbrook, both of whom singled to start the inning.

Facing a 7-1 deficit, the Lions immediately went back to work as Robb Paller blasted a solo shot over the fence in right on the first pitch of their half of the sixth. Some uncharacterstic miscues in the field allowed Columbia to load the bases with one out on a walk sandwiched between two errors, and Maguire rapped out a two-run single to make it a 7-4 game. Robinson induced a grounder to third, and Lombardi stepped on third for a force only to have his throw to first go a bit wide. Ketchmark hauled in the throw, but the ball was jarred loose as he applied the tag. Second baseman Dustin Shirley ran down the rolling spheroid and fired to third in time to get a confused Maguire caught in a rundown for the third out.

Robinson worked around a leadoff double in the seventh to maintain the three-run lead, and ended his evening having surrendered four runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks while fanning seven.

Head coach Bob Whalen turned to senior Chris England to start the eighth, and the Lions quickly put runners on the corners with consecutive singles. The right-hander managed to get Savage to ground into a double play, which allowed a run to score but cleared the bases, making it 7-5.

In the ninth, England issued a one-out walk and a double one out later, putting the tying runs in scoring position. In from the bullpen trotted freshman Patrick Peterson, who uncorked a wild pitch to make it a one-run game, but then got a soft one-hoppper to second to earn his sixth save of the year, tying for the league lead.

Thanopoulos (4-5) was stuck with the loss for yielding five runs, four earned, over 3.2 innings despite giving up two hits. His five walks, however, were his undoing.

Parisi, Lombardi and Holbrook each had two hits, while Parisi and Ketchmark both drove in a pair of runs. Columbia outhit the Big Green, 10-8, with Maguire a perfect 3-for-3 and two RBIs.

In the nightcap, the Lions scored in six of the nine innings, thanks in part to Joey Falcone going 4-for-5 with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs. Maguire continued to torment Dartmouth by smacking a two-run homer, his seventh of the year, to provide some insurance in the eighth by doubling Columbia's lead.

The Lions took a quick 1-0 lead in the first on a Falcone RBI single, but Dartmouth came back with two runs in the second, the first scoring on a passed ball, the second on a MacDowell squeeze bunt.

Savage tied the game in the fourth for the Lions with a two-out single to score David Vandercook from second, and Falcone put them on top for good in the fifth with a two-out, RBI double to plate Paller from first. Columbia knocked sophomore Mike Concato (4-4) from the mound in the seventh when Savage lined a triple to start the stanza and Boyher followed with a single for a 4-2 Lion lead.

Maguire's two-run blast in the eighth and Falcone's RBI triple in the ninth completed the scoring.

Meanwhile, Roy recovered from the shaky second to keep the Big Green off the scoreboard again, despite Dartmouth putting at least one runner on base in every inning until the ninth. Roy finished with four strikeouts in his 6.1 innings while giving up two runs (one earned) on seven hits and a pair of walks.

Adam Cline closed out the final 2.2 innings without allowing a run on one hit and two walks to go with three strikeouts.

Holbrook led the Big Green's eight-hit attack by going 3-for-4 with a run.

The first pitch of the third and final game of the ILCS is slated for 1 p.m. Neither team has announced its starting pitcher.

Notes: This is Dartmouth's 11th trip to the ILCS, but just the third time it won the opening game (2001 and '09), having lost the last five openers from 2010-14 … Holbrook was 5-for-8 in the twinbill and extended his hitting streak to eight games, the longest by any Big Green player this year ... he also has 20 hits in his last 40 at-bats (.500).