Trip to Brown This Weekend to Start Intradivisional Play

Intradivision Play Begins
With the four-game series at Brown this weekend, the all-important games against the other teams in the Rolfe Division get under way. And Dartmouth, which has won the last eight division titles, has won 18 straight regular-season contests in intradivision play, 19 if you include a one-game playoff in 2014 against Yale.

	Dartmouth (9-18, 3-3) at Brown (9-16, 3-5) Murray Stadium (1,000) • Providence, R.I.
	Saturday, April 16, Noon (DH) Game 1: Live Stats RHP Duncan Robinson (2-3, 3.78) vs. RHP Christian Taugner (4-1, 2.20) Game 2: Live Stats RHP Cole O'Connor (0-1, 3.38) vs. RHP Reid Anderson (0-3, 6.21)
	Sunday, April 17, Noon (DH) Game 1: Live Stats RHP Beau Sulser (1-1, 3.55) vs. LHP Austin French (2-3, 4.17) Game 2: Live Stats RHP Clay Chatham (0-3, 7.48) vs. LHP Max Ritchie (0-2, 18.90)

But the last Rolfe Division team to beat the Big Green was the Bears, which swept the first doubleheader at Murray Stadium almost exactly two years ago. Dartmouth begins the weekend two games behind 6-2 Yale in the standings and is looking to make up ground before hosting the Bulldogs on April 23-24.

Last Week in Review
•   Dartmouth won four times during a six-game homestand, taking three of four from Penn and Columbia over the weekend.
•   It took a 150-foot sacrifice fly off the bat of Kyle Holbrook to defeat the Quakers in the first game in a walk-off, 2-1 victory. Duncan Robinson threw his fourth straight complete game to earn the win, striking out eight without issuing a walk.
•   Penn pounded the Big Green in the nightcap, 11-1, belting three home runs to account for the game's first six runs.
•   Dartmouth avenged last year's defeat in the Ivy League Championship Series, sweeping a doubleheader from Columbia on Sunday.
•   Beau Sulser tossed six innings of one-run ball and Chris Burkholder got the save in the 3-1 win to start the twinbill. Matt Feinstein broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth with an RBI single.
•   The Big Green rallied for three runs in the ninth to win the second game, 7-6. Justin Fowler, who had hit his first collegiate homer earlier in the game, provided the winning hit with the bases loaded and two outs, crushing a pitch over the center fielder's head.
•   The bullpen allowed the offense to rally as Burkholder, Michael Danielak and Patrick Peterson hurled seven innings while yielding just two runs and striking out 10.
•   Dartmouth suffered an 11-6 defeat in non-conference action against UMass Lowell to end the homestand. Holbrook and Joe Purritano each drove in a pair of runs.

Last Time Against the Bears
Dartmouth swept the four-game series in Hanover last year, with three of the four games decided by a single run. The first game, however, was dominated by Mike Concato, who threw a six-hit shutout with seven strikeouts in a 3-0 victory. Joe Purritano doubled home one run, while Kyle Holbrook tripled in the second run and scored the third. In the second game of the first twinbill, the Big Green scored solitary runs in six innings and the bullpen held Brown to one unearned run in four innings as Patrick Peterson got the final out on strikes with the tying run at third to hold off the Bears, 6-5.

Duncan Robinson had a two-hit shutout going the next day, only to have Brown tie the game at one in the seventh. But Matt MacDowell hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom half to give Dartmouth a 2-1 victory. The bats took over in the finale, and once again the Bears rallied to tie the game in the final frame, scoring twice in the top of the ninth on a Noah Shulman two-run blast. MacDowell was prominent in the walk-off win again, scoring the winning run on a grounder to second, just beating the throw to the plate for an 8-7 triumph. Matt Parisi and Nick Ruppert each had three hits while Nick Lombardi drove in four runs to lead the offense.

The Overall Record vs. Brown
•   Dartmouth has played the Bears 248 times since the first meeting in 1871, with the Big Green having the edge, 142-105-1.
•   The Big Green have won the season series seven of the past eight years, sweeping the last three series in Hanover and taking three of four the other four years.
•   In the divisional era (since 1993), Dartmouth has been quite successful on Brown's home field, going 32-18 and gaining at least a split on all but three occasions. Since the Bears started playing at the site in 1959, the Big Green are 50-27 there.
•   Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen is 60-41 against the Bears during his tenure in Hanover, including a pair of games the two played against each other in Hawaii back in 1992 and a divisional playoff game that the Green won in 2001.
•   The first game between the two clubs came back in 1871, a 41-17 victory for Brown. No, that is not a football score.

Scouting the Bears
•   Brown suffered through an eight-game losing streak early in the season, but has since played .500 ball overall, though the Bears have dropped six of their last eight.
•   Third in the league in batting both overall (.254) and in league play (.300), Brown has been led by Josh Huntley with his .319 average and Sam Grigo with his five home runs and 19 RBIs.
•   The pitching staff has posted an ERA nearly identical to Dartmouth's at 5.44, though the Bears have surrendered 46 runs over their last three games and issue more than a walk every two innings on average. Expect to see Dante Bostic (2.49 ERA, two saves) and two-way player Rob Henry (10.50 ERA, two saves) in tight ball games.
•   Defense has been a little problematic, however, as Brown's .956 fielding percentage ranks last in the league, and opponents are stealing successfully on more than 80 percent of their attempts.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   Game one will feature a showdown of staff aces with senior RHP Duncan Robinson (3-3, 3.35) going for Dartmouth in search of his fifth straight complete game, and RHP Christian Taugner (4-1, 2.20) climbing the hill for the Bears. Robinson is fifth nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (14.67) and seventh in walks issued per nine innings (0.67). Taugner is second in the Ivy League in ERA and third in opponents' batting average (.203).
•   For the second game, freshman RHP Cole O'Connor (0-2, 4.10) gets another shot at his first collegiate victory. Last week he made two mistakes, both of which left the yard in an 11-1 loss to Penn. Brown will counter with RHP Reid Anderson (0-3, 6.21) who has had some control issues at times with 22 walks in 29.0 innings, but also has 22 strikeouts and last year held the Big Green to one unearned run on one hit over seven stanzas.
•   On Sunday, Dartmouth will trot senior RHP Beau Sulser (2-1, 2.89) to the mound after he handcuffed Columbia last week over six innings, surrendering just one run. For the Bears, LHP Austin French (2-3, 4.17) will get another go at the Green after yielding five runs, four earned, over 4.2 innings a year ago.
•   The finale features a pair of pitchers trying to get on track. Dartmouth has sophomore RHP Clay Chatham (0-3, 7.48) ready to go while Brown will have RHP Max Ritchie (0-2, 18.90) making his third start and fifth appearance of the season.

What's Up Next
No rest for the weary as Ivy League play continues mid-week thanks to the postponed doubleheader scheduled on April 3. Dartmouth will travel to Cornell for two games on Wednesday, then come back to Hanover to host the Rolfe Division-leading Yale Bulldogs for four games over the weekend.

Keeping It Close
Dartmouth has shown a penchant for playing close games this season with 11 of the 27 games being decided by a single run, including six of the last nine contests. The Big Green have won the last three one-run games to improve to 6-5 in those nail-biters, which makes two-thirds of their victories thus far coming by a single run. The other three wins have been decided by two, by the way.

Revenge of the Walk-Off
After Princeton won both ends of the April 2 doubleheader in walk-off fashion, Dartmouth had suffered four such defeats in its first 21 games. The Big Green managed to turn the tide during their six-game homestand, earning walk-off victories over Penn, 2-1, and Columbia, 7-6. Since the construction of Biondi Park before the 2009 season, Dartmouth has had 15 walk-off victories in the stadium and every Ivy League team has been victimized at least once (Brown most often, three times).

Reliever Ivy Pitcher of the Week
Junior right-hander Chris Burkholder stifled the opposition the week ending April 10, holding all comers in three games scoreless spanning seven stanzas. First he shut down Holy Cross for three innings, allowing Dartmouth to rally and beat the Crusaders, 2-1, giving him his first win of the season. Next he nailed down the save in a 3-1 triumph over Columbia before coming right back in the second game of the doubleheader to throw three more shutout innings. In the three appearances, he allowed just three hits and two walks to go with 10 strikeouts.

Ketchmark Cranks It Up
In the final game against Columbia on April 10, Michael Ketchmark crushed a two-run homer and ignited a three-run rally in the ninth with an RBI single as he posted a career-best four RBIs in the 7-6 victory. The last Big Green hitter to drive in at least four runs in a game was Nick Lombardi last April 19 against Brown, nearly a full year prior.

Fowler Hits It Fair
Sophomore Justin Fowler provided a clinic on how to deal with adversity. Mired in an 0-for-20 slump when the Columbia Lions rolled into town on April 10, his futility stretched to 21 at-bats after his first trip to the plate. But he ended the string with a leadoff hit the next time up and scored the tie-breaking run in a 3-1 victory. The next game, Fowler blasted his first career home run and ended the game with a long single to center with two outs in the ninth for a walk-off, 7-6 triumph. Now that is how you break out of a slump.

Beau Knows Lions
As a sophomore two years ago, Beau Sulser gave up two unearned runs and struck out a career-high 11 batters in a 3-2 win over Columbia, though he did not get a decision. On April 10, the right-hander continued his mastery over the Lions, holding them to a single run over six stanzas while striking out a modest four to earn the 3-1 victory.

Shortest Distance of a Sac Fly?
The question is more rhetorical than anything, but what is the shortest distance a sacrifice fly can travel? That was the query after Kyle Holbrook hit a shallow pop up into center field that the Penn second baseman caught with the score tied at one in the bottom of the seventh and final frame. Nick Ruppert decided to make a mad dash to the plate anyway, and with the fielder's momentum going away from the diamond, Ruppert was able to slide in for the winning run in the 2-1 walk-off win. So for now, approximately 150 feet is the cut off.

Finishing What He Starts
Senior RHP Duncan Robinson has proven he can finish what he starts after completing his fourth consecutive start in a 2-1 win over Penn on April 9. Those four complete games are tied for the second most in the country, while his stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio of 14.67 (44 to 3) ranks fifth nationally. His 44 strikeouts also lead the Ivy League entering play this weekend.

Big Green Bits
•   Against UMass Lowell on April 12, Jackson Bubala showed the form that earned a weekend rotation spot last year, hurling three no-hit innings in relief, walking one and striking out four.
•   Joe Purritano ended a 3-for-26 skid at the plate with a pair of doubles against the River Hawks.
•   The return of Kyle Holbrook to the lineup prior to playing Penn was a welcome addition after the sophomore missed a dozen games with an injury.
•   Adam Gauthier's batting average may not be pretty at .167, but the senior catcher is second on the team in on-base percentage at .388 thanks to 11 walks to tie for the team lead. His .600 OBP is tied for the best in league play.
•   Dustin Shirley is hitting .367 during the month of April, and despite not one of his 11 hits being for extra bases, still leads the team with five doubles and three triples.
•   With just another 0.2 innings, Cole O'Connor would qualify for national rankings, which would put him in the top 10 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.0) and fewest walks per nine innings (0.68).

Schedules