Ketchmark Lifts Dartmouth to 10-4 Win in Finale with Yale

Sunday, April 24

Hanover, N.H.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

13-23, 7-8

Yale

16-22-1, 10-5

Yale

Dartmouth

Ketchmark Lifts Dartmouth to 10-4 Win in Finale with Yale

4/24/2016 5:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — Michael Ketchmark went 4-for-5 with two doubles and a three-run homer to break a 4-4 deadlock in the seventh, helping Dartmouth (14-23, 8-8 Ivy) salvage the final game of the four-game series against visiting Yale on Sunday afternoon, 10-4. In the first game of the day, Richard Slenker provided the game-winning hit in the sixth as the Bulldogs (16-23-1, 10-6 Ivy) squeaked out a 4-3 win as Yale took three of four from the Big Green.

Yale now leads the Rolfe Division by two games over the Big Green and Harvard, which took three of four from Brown over the weekend. Only four games remain on the schedule as Harvard and Dartmouth square off next weekend while the Bulldogs will battle Brown.

Ketchmark collected a career-high five RBIs in the 10-4 triumph, the most by any Big Green player this season. Senior Thomas Roulis chipped in three hits and a trio of RBIs as well, while sophomore Dustin Shirley and senior Joe Purritano each scored three times to lead the offense.

With the score tied at four in the seventh, junior Ben Socher led off by drawing a walk and freshman Mike Brown was hit by the very next pitch to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After a sacrifice bunt put both runners in scoring position, Yale summoned left-hander Kumar Nambiar to face the lefty-swinging Purritano. Nambiar did his job, getting a grounder to second that allowed the Bulldogs to get the second out at the plate after a rundown.

Yale once again went to the bullpen to have side-arming Griffin Dey face the right-handed Ketchmark. The move backfired when Ketchmark pounced on the first pitch he saw, sending it high and deep down the left-field line that landed in the netting for a three-run homer and a 7-4 lead.

Dartmouth tacked on three more runs in the eighth on a Ketchmark RBI double and a two-run two-bagger off the bat of Roulis. Yale threatened in the ninth against closer Patrick Peterson (3-0), putting the first two runners on and loading the bases with two out. But the threat died on a routine grounder to third to end the game.

The Big Green began the game with a pair of first-inning runs as Purritano doubled in Shirley, who had singled and stolen second, and Roulis drove in Purritano with a two-out infield single. Yale got one back in the third when Simon Whiteman, who was 4-for-5 in the game, provided a two-out RBI single.

Solitary runs in the fourth and fifth boosted the Dartmouth lead to 4-1. Brown dropped a two-out single down the right-field line to score fellow freshman Steffen Torgersen, and Ketchmark drove in his first run of the game with a solid single to left after Shirley had singled and stolen second as he did in the first frame.

Meanwhile, Yale knocked out freshman starter Cole O'Connor in the top of the fifth by loading the bases with one down. But junior reliever Chris Burkholder was up to the challenge, fanning the first hitter he faced before getting the third out on a grounder to short.

In the sixth, Burkholder was not as fortunate as he was touched for three runs, tying the game. The Bulldogs had two on and two out when Tom O'Neill drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Nate Adams worked the count full before hitting a soft liner into right for a two-run single, which led to Peterson entering the game. His first pitch was slapped to right-center for a single to knot the score at four, setting up Ketchmark's heroics.

Peterson earned the victory by providing 3.1 scoreless stanzas on three hits and two walks while striking out one. Drew Scott (1-2) suffered the loss for Yale in his first start of the season, allowing six runs on nine hits and three walks over 6.1 innings to go with six strikeouts.

In the first game, the two teams traded runs in the second with Yale scoring when starter Duncan Robinson and catcher Adam Gauthier got their signals crossed with a runner on third, leading to a wild pitch. Senior Nick Ruppert evened the score in the bottom half by blasting a solo shot to deep left, his second home run of the season.

The score was still tied at one in the sixth when Adams laid down a bunt single to start the inning. Dartmouth played aggressive for another bunt, and though Whiteman swung away, he merely hit a slow one-hopper to Ketchmark at first. But his throw to second sailed wide of the target, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Richard Slenker then pulled a grounder past the third baseman playing even with the bag for an RBI single, and Harrison White followed with another base hit for another run. What turned out to be the decisive run scored with the infield in, yet the Alec Hoeschel's slow grounder to first did not allow Dartmouth to even attempt to nab the runner at the plate.

Nick Ruppert congratulates Joe Purritano after his pinch-hit homer in the seventh of game one. (courtesy Matt Risley)

Down to their last out in the seventh, the Big Green sent Purritano to the plate as a pinch hitter, and he crushed a two-run homer to right, cutting the deficit to one. When Brown walked on a full-count pitch, Yale summoned Mason Kukowski from the bullpen. A wild pitch allowed Brown to advance into scoring position, but Kukowski induced a grounder to first to end the game and earn his fourth save of the year, and third of the weekend.

Benny Wanger (1-3) earned his first victory on the mound by hurling 6.2 innings while yielding three runs on just four hits to go with four walks and four strikeouts. Robinson (3-5) was stuck with the loss, through he gave up just two earned runs on seven hits without a free pass while striking out seven in his sixth complete game of the year.

Dartmouth will host Siena on Wednesday afternoon at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed live via Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network with Wayne Young '72 calling the action.

Notes: For the anarchists out there, both divisions could still end in a four-way tie with every team finishing at 10-10. If Brown sweeps Yale, and Dartmouth splits the four games with Harvard, those four teams would tie for first in the Rolfe Division. In the Gehrig Division, Columbia would need to beat Penn three out of four, and Cornell would need to win all four against Princeton. Hey, it could happen ... Purritano's pinch-hit homer in game one was the first for the Big Green since Nick Santomauro '10 hit a three-run shot at Vermont, which no longer fields a baseball team, on April 21, 2009.