Dartmouth Drops Two to Yale, 7-4 and 4-0

Sunday, April 28

Hanover, N.H.

11:30 AM

Dartmouth College

Yale

Sophomore Ubaldo Lopez homered as part of a four-run ninth in the opener.

Photo by: Herb Swanson

4/28/2019 5:06:00 PM | Baseball

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Four-run ninth in opener not enough as Big Green come up short twice

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — After falling behind, 7-0, in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday, Dartmouth rallied for four runs and brought the tying run to the plate, but Yale escaped with a 7-4 victory before completing a twinbill sweep of the Big Green (14-23, 7-11 Ivy) as Kumar Nambiar twirled a two-hit shutout for the Bulldogs (16-23, 10-8 Ivy) in the nightcap for a 4-0 win.

With Alex Stiegler working on a three-hit shutout of his own in the opener, the Dartmouth bats came to life in the ninth as senior Matt Feinstein doubled and scored on senior Nate Ostmo's single before sophomore Ubaldo Lopez launched his sixth home of the season to close the gap to four. When Torgersen stroked a single to left-center, Stiegler was lifted in favor of left-hander Rohan Handa, who got the first out on a fly to center.

But junior Trevor Johnson kept the rally going with a base hit, and freshman Ben Rice grounded a pitch toward the hole between first and second. The first baseman dove and deflected the ball to the second baseman, but his throw to the pitcher covering first was wild, allowing Torgersen to score the fourth run. Sophomore Logan Adams was called upon as a pinch hitter, but he rolled over a 3-2 pitch and grounded into a double play to end the game.

Yale had scored an unearned run in the first before breaking through with three in the fifth against freshman right-hander Justin Murray (2-4). Jake Gehri doubled home one run, another trotted across the plate on a balk, and Cal Christofori hit a deep fly to center to bring home another Bulldog for a 4-0 lead.

Doubles by Pierce Blohowiak and Tim DeGraw in the sixth ended Murray's afternoon, and Yale added another run with two outs and freshman Chase Jeter on the mound as a runner on first took off for second and got caught in a rundown while DeGraw raced home with the Bulldogs' sixth tally.

Yale pulled off the same play in the ninth to score another unearned run, giving the Elis a little extra breathing room.

Stiegler (5-4) earned the win, yielding four runs, three earned, on seven hits and two walks in eight-plus innings of work while striking out six. DeGraw was one of four Bulldogs with two hits and scored three times.

Nambiar was the story in game two, retiring the first 15 batters he faced as his teammates put four runs on the board. DeGraw and Mason LaPlante pulled off a double steal with the latter swiping home for the game's first score in the top of the first.

Blohowiak yanked a two-out double down the third-base line in the second to score Tom Fuller, who had led off the inning with a base hit. A Griffin Dey single and Gehri double in the fifth led to sacrifice flies by Fuller and Dai Dai Otaka with Gehri just beating the throw home from Lopez in left.

Even though Nambiar lost his no-hit bid in the sixth when Johnson lined a leadoff single to left-center, the left-hander wasn't fazed and set the next six batters down in order. Dartmouth's only true scoring opportunity came in the eighth when Torgersen served up a single to left, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, and junior Michael Calamari reached with two outs on a third strike that eluded the catcher for a wild pitch, putting runners on the corners. But Nambiar induced a routine grounder to short to escape the inning unscathed.

Nambiar (3-2) quickly completed his second straight shutout, retiring the top of the order in the ninth with the last out coming on his 100th pitch. He allowed just the two singles and did not walk a batter while striking out nine.

Freshman Nathan Skinner (2-6) took the loss for surrendering the four runs on seven hits over 4.2 innings. Sophomores Jonah Jenkins and Max Hunter combined to shut down the Bulldogs for the final 4.1 frames on one hit and a pair of walks.

Dartmouth will complete its season this week with four final home games beginning with the last non-conference game of the year on Wednesday afternoon when Maine (9-26) comes to town for a 3 p.m. tilt. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Wayne Young '72 and Bob Lipman calling the action.

Notes: With the two losses, Dartmouth was eliminated from the Ivy League race for a spot in the championship series and will finish with its first losing record in conference play since 2007 … head coach Bob Whalen will be attempting to win his 600th game with the Big Green against his alma mater on Wednesday … Lopez's homer in the first game was the 27th of the season for the Green, their most since hitting 27 in 2011.