Key Series at League-Leading Yale for the Big Green

	DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN (9-17-1, 5-3-1) Notes \| Stats \| Twitter	YALE BULLDOGS (15-15, 9-3) Notes \| Stats \| Twitter
April 21-22 • Yale Field • New Haven, Conn.

THE GAMES
April 21 • 11:30 a.m.	April 21 • ~2:30 p.m.	April 22 • 1 p.m.
Live Stats	Live Stats	Live Stats
Starting Pitchers	Starting Pitchers	Starting Pitchers
D: RHP Cole O'Connor (4-3, 3.86)	D: RHP Jack Fossand (2-3, 5.25)	D: RHP Clay Chatham (1-3, 6.05)
Y: RHP Scott Politz (3-3, 3.56)	Y: LHP Kumar Nambiar (4-0, 5.87)	Y: RHP Eric Brodkowitz (4-2, 2.77)

Big Green Take on Ivy Leader
In what could be a make-or-break weekend, the Dartmouth baseball team travels to Yale — the Ivy League leader and defending champion — for a crucial three-game series. The Big Green are sitting third in the standings, looking to climb higher toward the top. A series victory for Dartmouth would go a long way toward that goal, while a sweep would move the Green ahead of the Bulldogs. Yale has won four of the last five games, but Dartmouth swept a four-game series in New Haven back in 2015.

The Overall Record vs. Yale
• The two teams have met 228 times on the diamond with the Bulldogs leading 127-100-1.
• While Yale has won seven of the last nine games, the Big Green have won 24 of the last 37 going back to the 2009 season.
• The Bulldogs have hosted Dartmouth for 102 games since the steel and concrete structure was built at Yale Field in 1928, with the Green going 38-63-1 in that time.
• In the divisional era (1993-2017), Dartmouth was 24-29 in New Haven against Yale with one four-game sweep just three years ago.
• Big Green head coach Bob Whalen enters this series with a 58-50 mark versus Yale.
• The first game in the series took place 136 years ago in 1881 when the Big Green defeated Yale, 6-3.

Scouting the Bulldogs
• Since losing its first two conference games at Columbia, Yale has won nine of 10, although the lone loss came at the hands of Harvard last week in a 4-0, no-hit defeat.
• The Bulldogs also have a win over Virginia and split two games with last year's darling of the NCAA Regionals, Davidson.
• Yale may be hitting just .257 for the season, but in league play that figure has jumped to .303, averaging a league-best 6.4 runs per game despite hitting just three homers in 12 games.
• Two Bulldogs are hitting over .380 against Ivy pitching — Simon Whiteman (.383) and Harry Hegeman (.381), while Benny Wanger has shaken off an extremely cold start to hit .351 in league play.
• Yale leads the Ivy League in ERA both overall (4.31) and in conference play (3.77).
• Wanger doubles as the closer with four saves and a 2.02 ERA in 13.1 innings this season, while Bobby Cecere (1.64 overall) has not allowed an earned run in four Ivy appearances.
• The defense has been terrific all year, leading the nation with a .986 fielding percentage (16 errors in 30 games), though opponents have stolen a base nearly 80 percent (39 of 49) of the time.

Last Time Against Yale
For the second straight year, the Bulldogs took three of the four games from Dartmouth, sweeping the first doubleheader before splitting the second one. Yale broke open a scoreless battle in the fourth inning of the opener with five runs, then tacked on three more in the fifth while Scott Politz tossed a seven-inning shutout for an 8-0 win. In the nightcap, the Elis put three on the board in the first and second stanzas en route to an 11-3 triumph, collecting 17 hits to the Big Green's 10.
The following day, Dartmouth started the game with a run in the first, only to have Yale answer with two in the bottom half. But the Green reclaimed the lead with three runs in the second and added three insurance runs in the seventh as Beau Sulser went the distance in a 7-2 win, striking out eight. The finale featured a Michael Ketchmark home run, but that was all for Dartmouth as Benny Wanger drove in all six Bulldog runs in the 6-1, series-clinching victory. Kumar Nambiar twirled seven innings of one-run ball to earn the win.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• Dartmouth will once again go with its three right-handers, though in a slightly different order. First up is junior RHP Cole O'Connor (4-3, 3.86), fresh off his third win in as many Ivy starts, thanks to seven innings of two-run ball in a 4-2 victory. The second game of the doubleheader will bring senior RHP Jack Fossand (2-3, 5.25) to the mound a week after matching O'Connor with seven innings and two runs allowed in a 5-3 triumph. Senior RHP Clay Chatham (1-3, 6.05), who struck out a career-high eight batters in his start against the Big Red, will now get the assignment in game three.
• Yale features a veteran rotation as well, beginning with junior RHP Scott Politz (3-3, 3.56) in the opener. He has thrown at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, striking out 35 in 38 frames. Game two will bring the lone starting southpaw to the mound in junior LHP Kumar Nambiar (4-0, 5.87). The Bulldogs have won five of his eight starts, including the last three despite surrendering 15 ER in 14.2 innings. Wrapping up the series will be senior RHP Eric Brodkowitz (4-2, 2.77), the team leader in ERA coming off a complete-game, 4-1 win over Harvard.

What's Up Next
With the Yale series concluding a seven-game road swing, Dartmouth will play host for its next seven contests, beginning with a mid-week matchup with Siena on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Next weekend, the Big Green will host the Brown Bears for a three-game Ivy series with the twinbill beginning at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday and the finale at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Last Week in Review
• Dartmouth won its second straight Ivy series by taking two of three from the Cornell Big Red on the road this past weekend.
• Sophomore Austen Michel picked up saves in both victories, giving him five on the season (four in league play) to lead the Ancient Eight.
• The Big Green won the opener, 4-2, behind seven strong innings by junior Cole O'Connor. The right-hander allowed two runs on five hits and four walks to go with four strikeouts, giving him his third victory in as many Ivy starts.
• Senior Jack Fossand matched O'Connor with seven two-run innings in the finale, allowing Dartmouth to claim the series with a 5-3 triumph.
• With temperatures in the mid- to upper-30s, it is no surprise the offense was a little cold, hitting just .216/.287/.294 in the three games, though Blake Crossing was 4-for-11 and Steffen Torgersen was 3-for-10, while Kyle Holbrook hit the lone long ball for the Big Green, his team-leading third of the season.
• Most recently, the Big Green lost to Boston College at its new field in Brighton, 8-3. Dartmouth rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game in theseventh, only to have the Eagles score five times in two innings to win the game.

Fein-Streaking
Junior Matt Feinstein saw his season batting average dip to .224 back at the end of March. But since Ivy League play began, the outfielder has hit safely in 11 of the 12 games, including the last eight in a row. During his hitting streak, Feinstein is hitting a solid .324 (11-for-34) with a pair of doubles, his first career home run, five runs and six RBIs.

Error Free in Ithaca
Dartmouth played the three games at Cornell without an error, its second error-free weekend in three Ivy League series so far. The team's .994 fielding percentage in conference play is easily the best among Ancient Eight teams, and at .970 on the season, Dartmouth has moved up to the top half in the country after committing at least one miscue in 15 of the first 16 contests.

Sullivan Finds His Stroke
Junior Sean Sullivan got off to an incredibly hot start to the season, hitting .540 over the first dozen games, rapping out at least two hits in 10 of those 12 contests. While his bat has cooled off in April at just .192 (5-for-26), including missing three games with an injury, he has still found a way to get on base, walking eight times and getting hit by a pitch in seven games for a .400 on-base percentage. The junior leads the league in three offensive categories — average (.392), hits per game (1.58) and lowest strikeout rate (once every 13.9 at-bats).

Shirley up for Senior CLASS Award
Of the 30 NCAA baseball student-athletes chosen as candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, given to a senior with notable achievements in four areas of excellence — community, classroom, character and competition — Dustin Shirley was among those selected. A psychology major with a 3.72 GPA, Shirley is a career .274 hitter with 70 runs and 70 RBIs in 149 games. The co-captain was also a finalist for the Dartmouthj Scholar-Athlete Award last year as well as an Academic All-Ivy selection.

Schedules