Dartmouth Still in Race for Rolfe Division on Final Weekend

Saying There's Still a Chance
The final weekend of Ivy League play finds Dartmouth in an unfamiliar place of late, two games behind Yale in the Rolfe Division standings. The fate of the Big Green's streak of eight consecutive division titles hinge on how many games Brown can take from the Bulldogs as Dartmouth battles with another 8-8 team in Harvard.

Should the Elis win at least three of the four games against the Bears, Yale will win the division outright for the first time since 1995 no matter the outcome of the series with the Crimson. But if Dartmouth wins exactly two more games than the Bulldogs, the Green will move into a tie and play a playoff game at Yale next weekend. Three wins or more and Dartmouth wins the division outright. But Harvard is in the same boat, too, making it even more difficult to pull off.

	Dartmouth (15-23, 8-8) vs. Harvard (16-21, 8-8) Saturday: O'Donnell Field (1,600) • Cambridge, Mass. Sunday: Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park (2,000) • Hanover, N.H.
	Saturday, April 30, 1 p.m. (DH) Game 1: ESPN3 and Ivy League Digital Network \| Live Stats Projected Starters: RHP Duncan Robinson (3-5, 3.31) vs. RHP Nick Gruener (5-3, 2.62) Game 2: ESPN3 and Ivy League Digital Network \| Live Stats Projected Starters: RHP Beau Sulser (3-1, 3.23) vs. RHP Sean Poppen (3-3, 3.10)
	Sunday, May 1, 1 p.m. (DH) Game 1: Ivy League Digital Network \| Live Stats Projected Starters: RHP Michael Danielak (2-2, 2.94) vs. RHP Ian Miller (1-5, 6.62) Game 2: Ivy League Digital Network \| Live Stats Projected Starters: RHP Cole O'Connor (0-2, 3.44) vs. RHP Kevin Stone (3-2, 4.79)

Last Week in Review
•   Dartmouth suffered its first four-game series loss at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park since the renovation before the 2009 season, then rebounded to take a mid-week game from Siena.
•   Yale, which had been 1-12 at Biondi Park, swept a doubleheader on Saturday and split the Sunday twinbill to take a two-game lead in the Rolfe Division standings. The three Bulldog wins were by a total of four runs.
•   Dartmouth rallied in the opener to take a 5-3 lead, only to have Yale storm back and claim a 7-6 victory thanks to wind-blown two-run homer and a pair of unearned runs.
•   The Bulldogs scored four runs in the second and held off the Green in game two, 5-3. Rob Emery homered and Jack Fossand threw three shutout innings of relief.
•   Joe Purritano crushed a two-out, two run homer in the final frame of game three, but Yale survived a 4-3 game as the Big Green had just four hits.
•   Dartmouth salvaged the finale as Michael Ketchmark posted career highs with four hits and five RBIs, including a three-run homer in the seventh to break a 4-4 deadlock, in a 10-4 victory.
•   Sam Fichthorn earned his first collegiate victory, while Jackson Bubala earned his first career save as both struck out three in two innings of work in a 5-3 win over Siena on Wednesday.

Last Time Against the Crimson
Dartmouth had already clinched the Rolfe Division title when these two teams converged last year, then swept Harvard for the third straight year to enjoy the largest lead (nine games) in Ivy League history since the divisional format began in 1993.

In the opener, the Big Green made quick work of the Crimson, scoring in each of the first five innings en route to an 8-1 triumph. Mike Concato allowed one run over six stanzas while Kyle Holbrook went 2-for-2 with three runs, three RBIs and his first career home run to lead the offense.

Dartmouth trailed, 3-0, going into the bottom of the seventh before erupting for four runs. Matt MacDowell tied the game with a two-run single, and Matt Parisi provided the winning hit with a two-out single to left. The rally made a winner out of Duncan Robinson, and Chris Burkholder and Patrick Peterson each threw a perfect inning of relief to close out the victory.

In Cambridge, Harvard was down to its final out before a double and a single sent the game into extra innings. But the Big Green, which had just one hit after the first frame, got three hits in the eighth, the last a two-run single by Dustin Shirley, to lift Dartmouth to a 6-4 win.

Jay Graham was the star of the finale as the reserve hit cleanup and went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and his only career home run to make a winner out of Chris England as Dartmouth cruised to a 7-2 win as many of the regulars got the game off.

The Overall Record vs. Harvard
•   By the end of this series, Dartmouth will have played the Crimson more than any other opponent. The Big Green have won 13 in a row and 21 of the last 22, but Harvard holds a 129-121 lead.
•   Five times Dartmouth has swept Harvard in a four-game series since the format changed in 1993. Since 2000, only once have the Big Green not at least split with the Crimson, that coming in 2005.
•   Since 1923, Dartmouth is 54-36 (.600) when hosting Harvard, including a 12-2 mark at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.
•   Harvard has been playing at the site of O'Donnell Field since 1898, beating Dartmouth in the inaugural game, 13-7. Since 1923, the Big Green are 44-53 (.454) at the site.

Scouting the Crimson
•   Harvard dug itself a hole by going 2-6 against the Gehrig Division teams, but have since taken three of four from both Yale and Brown to move into a tie with Dartmouth for second in the Rolfe Division standings.
•   Matt Rothenberg has been a terror at the plate with a league-leading .387 average while John Fallon tops the team with five homers and 24 RBIs. Overall, Harvard is hitting .258/.343/.368 as a team, but its .244 average and two homers in league play rank last.
•   The pitching staff has the lowest batting average against it in Ivy play (.232) to go with a 4.04 ERA, third behind Penn (3.64) and Dartmouth (3.81). The starting pitchers are discussed below, while the bullpen has six saves from Nick Scahill (3), T.J. Laurisch (2) and Dylan Combs (1), though Combs has the best ERA of the bunch at 2.65.
•   The Crimson defense has a .976 fielding percentage in league action with just one more error than Dartmouth (13 to 12). But Harvard has the fewest double plays (8) and has thrown out just 3-of-16 base stealers, though the catchers have not had a passed ball in the 16 Ivy contests.

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   The Ivy League workhorses will square off in the opener as Dartmouth sends RHP Duncan Robinson (3-5, 3.31) to the mound against Crimson RHP Nick Gruener (5-3, 2.62). Both have completed six starts, second in the country, but Robinson is 2-0 with a save in his career against the Crimson while Gruener is 0-2 versus the Green.
•   Senior RHP Beau Sulser (3-1, 3.23) will look to bounce back from his least effective start of the spring last week when he allowed five runs in five innings, but did strike out seven Bulldogs. Harvard will send RHP Sean Poppen (3-3, 3.10) who has lost all three of his starts against Dartmouth.
•   Back in Hanover, junior RHP Michael Danielak (2-2, 2.94) will make just his third start of the year, and first since fanning nine in five innings at USF on March 27. Toeing the slab for the Crimson will be RHP Ian Miller (1-5, 6.62), whose lone win came two weeks ago at Yale in a 9-1 ball game.
•   The final game of the season will be handed to a pair of freshmen. Dartmouth RHP Cole O'Connor (0-2, 3.44) is looking for his first victory despite sporting a strong ERA (and no unearned runs), while the Crimson have RHP Kevin Stone (3-2, 4.79) at the ready, coming off a four-hit, no-run performance versus Brown over eight innings.

What's Up Next
With a lot of luck, Dartmouth will get a shot at the postseason, either by advancing directly to the Ivy League Championship Series, or playing Yale in a divisional playoff, which would take place in New Haven. Otherwise, this is it for the 2016 season.

Games Live on ESPN3 and/or ILDN
The doubleheader at Harvard on Saturday will be streamed not only on the Ivy League Digital Network, but on ESPN3 as well. Sunday's twinbill will be available on the ILDN. The action will begin both days at 1 p.m.

Senior Day
Dartmouth will celebrate its graduating senior class on Sunday at 12:45 p.m., prior to the doubleheader against the Crimson. While seven seniors are listed on the roster, two are expected to return next season with an extra year of eligibility due to injuries. So the Big Green will recognize the following five: Adam Charnin-Aker, Joe Purritano, Duncan Robinson, Thomas Roulis and Nick Ruppert.

Approaching 1,900
The Big Green varsity baseball team is wrapping up its 150th anniversary this year, and it is fast approaching its 1,900th game victory. Dartmouth sits at 1,898 entering the weekend, so the countdown is at two to reach the milestone. The overall record is 1,898-1,869-24 (.504).

300th League Win
Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen recorded his 300th conference win when the Big Green handed Yale a 10-4 defeat on April 24. That is more than double the next coach (Tony Lupien won 127 from 1957-77, albeit with a much shorter schedule). Just don't call them 300 Ivy wins — the first three seasons of Whalen's tenure came during the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League era, so of his 300 wins, 275 have come since the Ivy League took over the EIBL in 1993.

Career Firsts Against Siena
Sophomore Sam Fichthorn earned his first career victory with two innings of one-run relief against visiting Siena on April 27. The right-hander allowed just one hit and struck out three after entering in the fourth and exiting with two down in the sixth. On top of that, junior Jackson Bubala picked up his first career save with two hitless innings to go with three whiffs to secure the 5-3 win.

Series Loss at Home
Prior to the weekend of April 23-24, Dartmouth had been swept in a doubleheader at home just once since the renovation to Red Rolfe Field added Biondi Park and the turf field in 2009, that coming two years ago when Penn took two from the Big Green. This year, Yale not only swept a doubleheader in Hanover, but it also took three of four, just the second time Dartmouth had lost an Ivy weekend in that stretch (Columbia split a twinbill that same weekend Penn won both games). The Bulldogs had been 1-12 at the venue, including the 2014 divisional playoff game. The three losses were one less than the Big Green had suffered against other Rolfe Division foes at home since the renovation. Dartmouth is now 40-7 at Biondi Park in intradivision play.

Purritano Finds Pure Stroke
Joe Purritano, who had been a mainstay in the lineup since arriving as a freshman, was hitting around .300 the end of March, but saw his average tumble into the .230s by mid-April. After a few days off, the senior returned with a vengeance, belting a two-out, two-run pinch-homer against Yale in the second game of the series. He then scored three times in the 10-4 victory over the Bulldogs and singled, scored and drove in a run — the 100th of his career (the 19th player to do so in Dartmouth history) — in the 5-3 win over Siena.

Ketchmark Has a Game
Needing to salvage at least one win against Yale, junior Michael Ketchmark provided all of the offense Dartmouth would need in the final game of the series, going 4-for-5 with five RBIs in the 10-5 win. It was his three-run homer — the first long ball with more than one runner on base all year — in the seventh that broke a 4-4 deadlock and sent the Green on their way to the win. It was the second time Ketchmark had collected four hits in a game, but a career high in RBIs. The last Dartmouth player with at least five RBIs in a game? Joe Purritano at Yale one year earlier on April 11.

Blair Bat on the Line
Sophomore Dustin Shirley finds himself in the thick of a batting race going into the final weekend. The coveted Blair Bat Award is bestowed upon the player with the highest average in league play, and Shirley enters the Harvard series hitting .431, second in the league to Princeton's Danny Hoy, who is at .456. Should Shirley make up that ground and win the award, he would be the first Big Green player to do so since Nick Santomauro '10 hit .473 in 2009. Even more impressive is that he would be just the sixth Dartmouth hitter to earn the award since it was first given out 86 years ago (1930).

Peterson Still Perfect
Well, perfect in the win-loss column. Sophomore Patrick Peterson picked up the win in the 10-4 victory over Yale with 3.1 scoreless innings to close out the game. The win improved his career record to 7-0, to go with nine saves in his first two years. That gives him a win or a save in 16 of his 25 career appearances on the mound.

Schedules