Big Green Nipped at San Jose State, 4-3

Monday, March 19

San Jose, Calif.

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-9

San Jose State

9-10

Dartmouth

San Jose State

3/19/2018 9:02:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Dustin Shirley Kyle Holbrook Matt Feinstein Austen Michel Sean Sullivan Michael Parsons Box Score: San Jose State 4, Dartmouth 3 Box Score (PDF)

By: Dartmouth

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Pinch hitter Ruben Ibarra broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth with a bases-loaded single on an 0-2 pitch to lift San Jose State to a 4-3 victory over visiting Dartmouth on Monday afternoon at Municipal Stadium. The win was the third in the last four games for the Spartans (9-10), while the Big Green (3-9) dropped their third in a row.

Junior Sean Sullivan, who was named the Ivy League Player of the Week earlier in the day, recorded his second straight four-hit game, and senior Kyle Holbrook added three more with a double for Dartmouth, but the rest of the Big Green lineup managed just three singles against five San Jose State pitchers.

Double plays were the Spartans' best friend on this afternoon as their defense turned four in the game, including a twin killing to end the game on a line drive off the bat of junior Matt Feinstein that doubled up Sullivan on first.

Josh Zanger (1-0) earned his first victory of the season for San Jose State by hurling 3.2 scoreless innings of relief after Dartmouth had taken a 2-1 lead in the third. He replaced starter Jake Swiech in the inning with one down and runners on first and second, then stranded those two by getting the final two outs on strikes. After that, he allowed just a two-out double in the fifth and a single in the sixth that was erased on one of those double plays.

The Spartans took a 1-0 lead against Big Green sophomore hurler Austen Michel (0-1) in the second when Chris Williams led off the inning with a double — his first of three hits on the day — and David Campbell poked a single through the right side to bring him home.

Dartmouth answered right back in the third as Sullivan hit a one-out single, took second on a wild pitch, and after Feinstein was hit by a pitch, Holbrook came through by dumping an RBI single into left. Senior Dustin Shirley followed with an RBI single of his own, but that was when Zanger took over on the mound.

In the fourth, San Jose State knotted the score on a squeeze bunt by Jace Duty, scoring Shane Timmons who got things started with a leadoff single.

A leadoff walk to Timmons in the sixth was a bad omen for the Big Green as Williams singled him to second and David Campbell bunted them into scoring position. But Michel fanned Duty for the second out and quickly jumped ahead of Ibarra with two strikes, only to catch too much of the plate with his next offering that Ibarra slapped to right for a two-run single and a 4-2 lead.

Dartmouth threatened to get both runs right back in the seventh by loading the bases with one out against reliever Brandon Ross. He was replaced by Justin Watland, who got a big strikeout for the second out and a grounder to short. The potential final out of the inning was booted, however, allowing a run to cross the plate. That would be all for the Big Green, though, as Watland induced a pop to short to end the threat.

Sullivan singled for the fourth time in the ninth with one gone to put the tying run on base against closer Wesley Clawson. That was as far as Sullivan would go as Feinstein's liner to short was snared and thrown across the diamond to double him up to end the game, giving Clawson his fourth save of the year.

Michel surrendered four runs on eight hits and a pair of walks in the longest outing of his collegiate career (5.2 innings) while striking out four. Sophomore Michael Parsons got the final seven outs while giving up just a single with one strikeout.

Dartmouth was scheduled to play NAIA Westmont on Tuesday at 3 p.m. (local time), but an evacuation order for the area due to a potential torrential rain storm has caused the game to be canceled. The Big Green will next start a three-game series at Cal Poly (8-12) on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. (PDT)/9 p.m. (EDT).

Notes: Sullivan raised his average to .540 on the season with his 4-for-5 performance, his sixth straight multi-hit game and 10th in the last 12 … Shirley's RBI single in the third extended his hitting streak to 10 games, matching the longest by any Big Green player since the start of the 2014 campaign.