Dartmouth Drops Double Dip to Lehigh

Friday, March 18

Winter Haven, Fla.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-7

Lehigh

4-10

Dartmouth

Lehigh

3/18/2016 6:15:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Lehigh clubbed six homers — two each by Jason Nalesnik and Patrick Donnelly — in the nightcap of a doubleheader with Dartmouth to complete a sweep of the twinbill, pounding out 19 hits in the 15-7 victory. In the first game, the Mountain Hawks (5-10) sent four men across the plate in the first inning, then held on for a 5-4 triumph to end a 10-game skid.

Dartmouth (1-9) led at one point in both of the seven-inning games, having scored a run in the top of the first in the opener and even held a 3-2 advantage after four innings before Lehigh exploded for 13 runs over the final three frames.

The Big Green began the scoring to start the afternoon as sophomore Kyle Holbrook rapped out a two-out RBI single to score junior Ben Socher, who had singled with one down.

Lehigh quickly answered against Dartmouth right-hander Jackson Bubala (0-2), who didn't make it out of the first. Donnelly tied the score with a single, and Connor Donovan followed with a two-run double. A James Bleming two-out single with the bases loaded brought home the final run of the inning for a 4-1 Mountain Hawk lead.

Mike Garzillo extended Lehigh's lead to four with a sacrifice fly, plating David Young who had led off the second inning with a double.

In the third, the Big Green cut their deficit in half. Sophomore Dustin Shirley stroked a leadoff double and scored one out later on a single off the bat of senior Thomas Roulis. After Roulis advanced on a ground ball, freshman Rob Emery dumped a two-strike single into right-center to make it a 5-3 game.

Senior Nick Ruppert closed the gap to one in the fourth with a two-out solo homer to left-center, his first of the season.

Mark Washington (2-1) relieved Kevin Boswick to start the fifth and shut Dartmouth down on two hits with a strikeout for the final three frames to earn the victory.

Donnelly, Donovan and Bleming all had two hits for the Mountain Hawks, as did Shirley and Socher for the Big Green.

In the second game, Lehigh held a 2-1 lead in the fourth thanks to solo homers by Nalesnik and Donnelly when Dartmouth got two-out singles from sophomore Justin Fowler and senior Adam Gauthier for a 3-2 lead. But the Mountain Hawks responded with three runs in the fifth with the big blow being a two-run double by Mackey Price to take a 5-3 advantage.

The Lehigh lineup proceeded to rough up the Big Green bullpen with three runs in the sixth and seven more in the seventh, though only two were earned. Donnelly launched a three-run blast in the sixth, while Nalesnik crushed a two-run bomb to dead center before Price swatted a grand slam and Anthony Rinaldi went back-to-back with another four-bagger.

Dartmouth got four back in its final trip to the plate as sophomore Hayden Rappoport stroked a two-run single, followed by RBI singles off the bats of freshman Mike Brown and senior Joe Purritano.

Ethan Frohman (1-0) earned the victory with a quality start of six innings and three runs, two earned, on five hits and three walks with a pair of punchouts.

Taking the loss was sophomore Clay Chatham (0-3), who surrendered five runs, four earned, over five frames with a walk and two strikeouts.

Donnelly was 4-for-5 with his two long balls, a double, three runs and four RBIs while Price went 3-for-5 with six RBIs. Nalesnik also had three hits to go with three runs and three RBIs for the Mountain Hawks.

Dartmouth plays again on Saturday in the Russ Matt Invitational, taking on Maine — the alma mater of Big Green head coach Bob Whalen — for the first time in 21 years. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. at Chain of Lakes Park.