Big Green Drop Two to Harvard

Sunday, April 21

Hanover, N.H.

11:30 AM

Dartmouth College

11-20, 5-8

Harvard

19-9, 9-4

Harvard

Dartmouth

Matt Feinstein had five hits in the two games.

Photo by: Mike Janes

4/21/2019 5:35:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game 1 Box (PDF)Game 1 Box (HTML)Game 1 Highlights Game 2 Box (PDF)Game 2 Box (HTML)Game 2 Highlights Photos by Doug Austin

Harvard picked up 2-1 and 11-3 victories in Hanover

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Senior Matt Feinstein rapped out five hits in the doubleheader, but Dartmouth suffered losses in both ends, 2-1 and 11-3, as Harvard clinched the three-game series with one still to play on Monday. Hunter Bigge pitched eight innings in the opener for the win, then homered and drove in four in the nightcap to help the Crimson (20-9, 10-4 Ivy) sweep a doubleheader in Hanover for the first time in 20 years.

The Big Green (11-21, 5-9 Ivy League) suffered their sixth straight home defeat and ninth loss overall in their last 11 games.

The first game was a classic pitchers' duel with Dartmouth senior Cole O'Connor matching Bigge pitch for pitch for seven innings. Harvard broke a scoreless tie in the fourth when Patrick McColl dropped a double into left-center on the first pitch of the inning — his second two-bagger of the game — and Jake Suddleson rapped the next offering into center field for an RBI single.

Bigge, meanwhile, allowed just one hit and faced the minimum through four innings, then ran into trouble in the fifth before leaving the bases loaded without a run scoring. He was not as fortunate in the sixth when senior Sean Sullivan and Feinstein began the frame with consecutive singles to put runners on the corners with nobody out. An errant pickoff throw at first allowed Sullivan to score the tying run, but Bigge escaped further damage by inducing an inning-ending double play with two on base.

O'Connor's afternoon ended after his seven innings and 114 pitches on the mound, scattering seven hits and three walks that led to just the one run while fanning two. Sophomore Jonah Jenkins tossed a scoreless eighth, as did Bigge despite surrendering a one-out double to Feinstein and a rocket to left by senior Nate Ostmo that Trent Bryan gloved for the second out.

Jenkins (2-2) put himself in a hole in the ninth by walking Jake Allen in the nine-hole on four pitches to start the stanza. A sacrifice bunt put the winning run in scoring position, and one out later, Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen elected to walk the left-handed-hitting McColl (third in the nation with a .445 average entering the weekend) to face the right-hander Suddleson. But Suddleson foiled the strategy by hitting a seeing-eye grounder through the hole between shortstop and third, and pinch runner Tommy Seidl scampered home with the go-ahead run.

Crimson closer Kieran Shaw took over in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side in order on seven pitches to record his 12th save of the season, breaking the Ivy League record.

Bigge (5-1) earned his fifth straight win, allowing just the one unearned run on six hits and one walk while striking out seven.

In the second game, Dartmouth struck first with a second-inning run on an RBI single with the bases loaded by Bennett McCaskill, scoring junior Michael Calamari. But junior Trevor Johnson's sinking liner to left was caught and not deep enough to score another run before Harvard right-hander Buddy Hayward got the third out on a fly to right to leave the bases packed.

Big Green right-hander Justin Murray cruised through the first three innings, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced. In the fourth, however, the Crimson recorded five hits, the last a two-run triple by Bryan to suddenly put Harvard on top, 4-1.

The Crimson matched those four runs in the fifth with only two hits to their credit, starting with a leadoff triple by Ben Skinner and a wild pitch on a third strike that allowed him to score. Suddleson added an RBI single, Harvard pulled off a double steal with McColl swiping home and Bigge added a sacrifice fly to make it an 8-1 lead.

Hayward departed the mound after the second inning and was replaced by Enzo Stefanoni, who held Dartmouth in check in the third and fourth before being touched for two runs in the fifth. Ostmo lined an RBI double down the line in right before Ubaldo Lopez sent a deep fly to center to score Feinstein from third, closing the gap to 8-3.

That would be all of the scoring for the Big Green as Stefanoni (4-1) tossed a scoreless sixth before J.T. Bernard held the Dartmouth bats in check for the final three to earn his first save.

The Harvard bats, meanwhile, added two runs in the seventh on Bigge's two-run blast to left, his fifth of the year, and a bases-loaded single by Buddy Mrowka in the ninth.

Murray (2-3) suffered the loss for yielding eight runs over five innings on eight hits and a walk to go with a pair of strikeouts. Steffen Torgersen had three of the Big Green's nine hits, while Harvard collected 14 knocks, three by Bigge.

The two teams will conclude the three-game series on Monday at noon, streamed live on ESPN+ with Wayne Young '72 calling the action.

Notes: Harvard has won four straight against the Big Green and each of the last two series after not winning one since 2005 … Dartmouth has dropped its first six home games this year, its longest losing streak in Hanover since a nine-game skid in 1998 … Torgersen extended his hitting streak to seven games.