Big Series in the Big Apple

Saturday, March 30

New York, N.Y.

11:30 AM

Dartmouth College

Columbia

Photo by: Mike Janes/Four Seam Images

3/29/2019 11:12:00 AM | Baseball

Robertson Field at Satow Stadium March 30, 2019 Game 1 ESPN+ Broadcast Game 2 ESPN+ Broadcast March 31, 2019 Game 3 ESPN+ Broadcast Live Stats Dartmouth Notes Columbia Notes

Familiar foe Columbia hosts Dartmouth for three games this weekend

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (8-11, 2-1)
at COLUMBIA (6-11, 2-1)
Saturday, March 30 (DH) 11:30 a.m. | Sunday, March 31 12:00 p.m. | ESPN+
Robertson Field at Satow Stadium | New York, N.Y.

Dartmouth plays a three-game series at Columbia this weekend in a matchup of perhaps the best Ivy League rivalry of the last decade. Both teams are 2-1 with hopes of qualifying for the Ivy League Championship Series, where they have met five times in the last 11 seasons. While the Lions got the better of the Big Green in four of those series, Dartmouth has fared better in the regular season, winning 17 of the 23 meetings in that span.

Overall Record vs. Columbia
• Dartmouth owns a sizable advantage in the all-time series, 111-78, and have won six of the last seven contests.
• While the Big Green have advanced to the Ivy League Championship Series eight times in the last 11 years and Columbia has on six occasions, those coincided five times with the lone Dartmouth victory over the Lions coming in 2010. Columbia won the showdowns in 2008, '14, '15 and '16.
• Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has a 47-28 mark in games against Columbia and is 24-16 head-to-head against Lions coach Brett Boretti.
• Columbia has been playing on FieldTurf at its home park — Robertson Field at Satow Stadium — since 2008. The Big Green are 12-8 on the turf and 48-46 in New York dating back to 1923.

Scouting the Lions
• Columbia at 6-11 on the season has played the 42nd-most difficult schedule in Division I as rated by Boyd's World, with one of the wins coming at Miami a week and a half ago before taking two of three from Cornell at home last weekend.
• In non-conference action, the Lions have hit just .224 with three home runs in 14 games, averaging 3.6 runs. But against the Big Red, they hit .273 with four home runs and scored 6.3 runs a game.
• Catcher Liam McGill (.294/.400/.471) has been Columbia's best hitter while Joe Engel leads the team with 14 walks and a .421 OBP.
• First baseman Chandler Bengston missed 10 games but has returned to the lineup to hit grand slams in each of the last two contests.
• Josh Simpson has been terrific in four starts and leads the pitching staff that sports a 5.70 ERA.
• The Lions' bullpen has been very effective as Dane Miller, Jimmy Smiley and Lucas Hall have combined to allow 13 hits and one measly run over 25.1 innings (0.36 ERA).
• The defense has been strong with 16 errors in the 17 games for a .975 fielding percentage, and McGill has thrown out 30 percent of base stealers.

Last Time Against the Lions
Last year, Dartmouth won the three-game series in Hanover by claiming the first two contests, 5-4 and 10-4, before Columbia salvaged the final game, 12-3. Matt Feinstein slugged a three-run homer to finish the Big Green scoring in the second inning of the opener, Cole O'Connor picked up the win with six innings of four-run ball and Austen Michel closed the door with three shutout stanzas.

Columbia took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the third in game two, only to watch Dartmouth put a seven-spot on the board starting with a Bennett McCaskill long ball and ending with a Michael Calamari two-run shot. Michael Parsons took over on the mound in the third and held the Lions scoreless for 5.2 frames to earn the victory.

Dartmouth scored two in the second stanza in the finale, but the Lions answered in each of the next four innings to take a 6-2 lead. The Big Green scratched out a run in the seventh, but Columbia slammed the door with a six-run eighth as Chandler Bengtson went 2-for-3 with two homers and six RBIs.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• For the series opener, senior RHP Cole O'Connor (2-2, 6.23), who is 2-0 in his career against the Lions, will look to build upon his outing last week when he held Princeton to two runs on six hits over eight innings. Columbia will send staff ace LHP Justin Simpson (2-1, 2.77) who tossed a three-hit shutout against Cornell with one walk and seven strikeouts.
• Freshman RHP Justin Murray (0-1, 6.23) is searching for his first career victory and would like to put a rocky start last week behind him (five runs in three-plus innings). Matching up against him will be RHP Ethan Abrams (1-0, 9.82), who has allowed just one run over his last eight innings.
• The finale will showcase freshman RHP Nathan Skinner (1-2, 4.57) against LHP Ben Wereski (0-3, 5.79). Skinner tossed five innings of relief last weekend, yielding just a two-run homer, and in his last start did not allow a hit to USF until the sixth. Wereski held Cornell scoreless for four frames last weekend before giving up four runs in the fifth of a 4-3 loss.

What's Up Next
The Big Green will play their 23rd consecutive game outside of Hanover at Holy Cross on Wednesday at 5 p.m., then finally play host next weekend when Penn comes to town for a three-game Ivy League series.

Vaules Stalls Quinnipiac
Junior Alec Vaules is making the most of his opportunities on the mound. After throwing a total of 2.2 innings in his first two seasons with the Big Green, the right-hander made his first collegiate start against Bradley and acquitted himself well with five innings of three-run ball. But he outdid himself on March 27 in his second start, shutting out Quinnipiac on two hits and one walk with four strikeouts over five frames. It was plenty good enough to earn his first career win in the 9-2 victory.

Rice Soaks It In
Freshman Ben Rice opened the season as the third-string catcher, but he is making a push for more playing time after the 9-2 win at Quinnipiac. The rookie went 2-for-4 with a triple, scored two runs and drove in two in just his second career start.

Lots of Lopez
• Sophomore Ubaldo Lopez was named a College Baseball National Player of the Week on March 25 after going 9-for-22 with five doubles, two homers and 11 RBIs over six games. He was the first Big Green player to earn the honor since Joe Purritano in 2013.
• The Florida native had a .100 career average entering the week (5-for-50).
• His biggest game was the first that week, driving in six runs on his first two career homers — the second a two-out grand slam in the ninth — in a 6-2 victory over Bradley.
• Lopez had another game-winning, two-out hit in the ninth with a bases-clearing double to erase a 6-5 deficit in an eventual 10-8 win over Princeton.
• He continued to pummel the ball at Quinnipiac on Wednesday, going 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to seven games. He is 11-for-26 (.423) during those contests and leads the team with 14 RBIs on the season.

Series Victory at Princeton
Dartmouth got its Ivy League season off on the right foot by taking two of three from Princeton on March 23-24. The Big Green demolished the Tigers in the opener, 23-3, then rallied from a ninth-inning deficit to take game two, 10-8, before Princeton salvaged the finale, 8-2. It was the 100th win for the Tigers in the series, which they lead, 100-91.

Bits on 23-3 Victory
• The 23 runs in the opening win were the most for Dartmouth since scoring 23 against Fairleigh Dickinson back in 2004, and its second-most runs in a league game dating back to 1930 (25 vs. Harvard, May 4, 2002).
• Sophomore catcher Logan Adams had a career game, going 4-for-6 with his first two collegiate home runs and six RBIs. He entered the game 0-for-13 on the season and 4-for-21 in his career.
• The eight runs scored in the fourth inning of that contest were more than Dartmouth had scored in a game all year to that point, and the most in any inning since putting up eight runs against Chicago two years ago.
• Junior Michael Calamari had four extra-base hits in the blowout win with three doubles and a triple with four RBIs, the latter tying a career high.
• Senior Matt Feinstein scored a career-high four runs as well.
• All nine starters had at least one of the 21 hits, and eight of the nine had at least two.
• Don't forget the pitching! Senior Cole O'Connor matched a career high with eight innings, allowing just two runs on six hits.

Sullivan Starting To Swing It
Ubaldo Lopez is not the only hot hitter over the last seven games with senior Sean Sullivan batting .370 (10-for-27) and five of the regulars (including Sullivan) sporting an on-base percentage of at least .414 in that stretch.

Senior CLASS Candidate
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 — Cole O'Connor was among those selected. A government major with a 3.26 GPA, O'Connor enters the weekend with a career 4.39 ERA over 182.2 innings spanning 34 appearances (32 starts) while posting a 11-10 record.

Bully Bullpen
Junior Michael Parsons and sophomore Jonah Jenkins had particularly effective relief outings in the 10-8 win over Princeton. Parsons completed three innings and allowed only an unearned run, while Jenkins threw two perfect stanzas. Those performances allowed Dartmouth to rally for a 10-8 win in the ninth and give Jenkins his second win of the year.

Putting the Bat on the Ball
Junior first baseman Michael Calamari has shown an uncanny ability to put the bat on the ball. The junior has struck out just four times in 67 at-bats, making him the 10th toughest to strike out among Division I hitters thus far. Granted, he has also walked just three times, so when he steps to the plate, expect the ball to be in play somewhere.

Relying on Rookies in Rotation
After 19 games, Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has shown he is not afraid to send any number of rookie pitchers to the mound. Nearly half (9) of the games have featured a freshman on the mound — Nathan Skinner (3), Justin Murray (3), Trystan Sarcone (2) and Chase Jeter (1). That trend is expected to continue this weekend with Murray scheduled to start the second game against Princeton with Skinner ready for game three. Of the 155.2 innings thrown by Big Green pitchers this year, 55.1 have been thrown by that quartet, just over one-third.

Picking It in the Field
The Dartmouth defense has done a good job of making the plays in the field with a .978 fielding percentage (14 errors in 19 games), which ranks 22nd in the nation. The school record is .979 set by the 2013 squad that won 32 games.