This Day in Dartmouth History: May 2
5/2/2020 2:00:00 AM | Baseball, Equestrian, Men's Lacrosse, Softball, Athletics
May 2, 2015 — Anna Knowles '16 wins Dartmouth's first Equestrian national championship
In the long and storied tradition of the Dartmouth equestrian program, there had never been a national champion until 2015.
Junior Anna Knowles '16 was the 2015 National Champion in the McDonald Scholarship Challenge at the 2015 IHSA National Championship Show held at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts. In addition, freshman Nathalie Ferneau '18 earned the title of Reserve National Champion in the competition.
Knowles and Ferneau were among the Top-16 scorers in the country out of more than 10,000 individuals in the horsemanship test. The Big Green duo then excelled at the practicum at nationals to bring home the first national title in program history.
The McDonald Scholarship Championship is a test on horsemanship and related equine topics and is open to all IHSA undergraduate members.
May 2, 2015 — Softball sweeps Penn to win the Ivy League Championship Series and advance to an NCAA Regional
The Big Green, who finished the 2015 season with a record of 25-18 (16-4 in the conference) entered the 2015 Ivy League Championship Series for the third straight year against the Penn Quakers and were looking to defend their title in Hanover.
Dartmouth and Penn split the regular-season series in Philadelphia in late March, and both teams were ready for the best-of-three rematch for the right to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Pitching was the story in both games that day, as senior Kristen Rumley '15 and junior Morgan McCalmon '16 — both of whom carried the Big Green in the circle all season — were dominant.
In game one, Penn's designated hitter, Alexis Sargent smacked a second-inning solo home run off Rumley. But that was all the Big Green's ace would allow as she struck out five with no walks in a complete game. Dartmouth tied the contest in the fifth thanks to an unearned run on a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by freshman Madison Smith '18. Two innings later, sophomore Alyssa Jorgenson '17 hit a walk-off double to give the home team a 2-1 victory and a 1-0 series lead.
With the championship just seven innings away, McCalmon put together one of the best games in her career. She did not allow a run while allowing just four hits and a walk, striking out eight in her route-going performance, improving her season record to 10-2. The one and only run of the game came in the first inning when, fittingly, Rumley hit an RBI single to score junior Katie McEachern '16.
Dartmouth went on to give No. 10 Florida State and South Carolina competitive games in the NCAA Tournament.
May 2, 2010 — Baseball sweeps home doubleheader from Harvard, clinching Rolfe Division title with the first win
A third consecutive Rolfe Division crown was all but assured as Dartmouth entered the final weekend of the 2010 season with a three-game lead over Harvard with four games to play against the Crimson, meaning just one Big Green victory would send them to the Ivy League Championship Series to defend their title. But the doubleheader in Cambridge did not go as planned with Harvard taking both ends, 8-4 and 15-7, to keep its title hopes alive.
Back in Hanover the following day, Dartmouth was back on the familiar turf of Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park where the Green boasted a 25-5 record since the park opened the previous spring. That success continued as the Crimson succumbed to the mystifying pitching of sophomore Kyle Hendricks '12 — who has won 63 games for the Chicago Cubs — and the power of junior Jason Brooks '11 at the plate in a 9-0 Dartmouth victory.
Hendricks was nearly untouchable on the mound, shutting out Harvard on just two hits in the seven-inning contest, striking out four without a walk and needing just 75 pitches to dispose of the Crimson. The only batter to reach base in the first six stanzas was erased on a double play, and the other hit he surrendered was left stranded at second when he recorded the final out.
The offense, meanwhile, got plenty of production from Brooks, who pulled off the unusual feat of coming up a single short of the cycle. He put the Green on the board in the second with a long three-run homer to left, then doubled in another run in the third for a 4-0 advantage. After junior Sam Bean '11 tripled home two in the fourth, Brooks matched his teammate with a two-run three-bagger of his own in the fifth. Senior Jim Wren '10 added an RBI single in the sixth to close out the scoring.
Dartmouth went on to win the nightcap as well, 9-7, to finish the regular season with a 13-7 mark in league play and 23-15 overall with more fun to come …
May 2, 2004 — Baseball clinches Rolfe Division in the final game of the season, appropriately at Red Rolfe Field
Six years before clinching the division title at home on the final day of the season, Dartmouth did exactly that against Harvard, waiting until the second game of the twinbill to secure the crown. The Big Green entered the weekend with a two-game lead over the Crimson and saw that advantage remain after splitting a doubleheader in Cambridge, but a loss in the first game in Hanover meant Dartmouth had to win the last game to avoid a playoff with Harvard.
The Big Green went right to work, putting a run on the board in the first. Another singleton in the fifth made it a 2-0 game before Dartmouth blew the game open with a four-run sixth. One more crossed the plate in the following inning giving the Green seven runs in the contest. Future big leaguer Ed Lucas '04 drove in three runs with a single and a sacrifice fly, fellow senior Scott Shirrell '04 scored and doubled twice and freshman center fielder Will Bashelor '07 plated two with a two-bagger of his own.
Freshman pitcher Stephen Perry '07 had little difficulty with the Crimson nine, putting goose eggs on the board in each of the first eight frames. The only blemish on his record that day came in the ninth with Dartmouth holding a 7-0 lead as Harvard touched him for a two-run homer. But he proceeded to retire the next three hitters and seal the 7-2 victory and the division title. He finished up having yielded the two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out two in his clutch complete-game effort.
Dartmouth hosted the Ivy League Championship Series thanks to a league-best 15-5 conference record while ending the regular season at 25-14. A total of 10 players received All-Ivy honors with the shortstop Lucas, sophomore right-hander Josh Faiola '06 and sophomore third baseman Tommy Myette '06 on the first team.
May 2, 2003 — Men's Lacrosse clinches a share of the Ivy League crown, first for the program in 38 years
The Dartmouth men's lacrosse team ended the regular season with its fifth consecutive win, defeating Harvard, 5-4, in its lowest scoring game of the season.
With the victory, the Big Green were named Ivy co-champion, sharing the title with Cornell. It was the first time in almost four decades that Dartmouth finished on top having last won the league title in 1965.
A goal by sophomore Ben Grinnell '05 less than five minutes into the first quarter got scoring started, but that turned out to be the only goal until early in the second, when Harvard took the lead with two of its own. After trading tallies, the Crimson took a 3-2 advantage into the third quarter.
Freshman Brad Heritage '06 netted the only marker of the third and the score remained tied at three until Grinnell and Heritage scored one more each in the final quarter to give Dartmouth a 5-3 lead. Harvard got one back with 90 seconds remaining but fell short of tying the game again.
The Big Green went on to play Syracuse in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament but ultimately came up just short in a 13-11 defeat.
May 2, 1924 — Roland Barker '24 no-hits Rochester in a 7-0 win for Baseball
Dartmouth was off to a solid start to the 1924 campaign having won eight of its first 12 games and riding a modest three-game winning streak, beating Cornell (5-0), Norwich (16-1) and UMass (4-3). But the weather was a little soggy on a trip to upstate New York with a game at Colgate getting rained out on May 1 and another washed away at Syracuse two days later.
But in between the canceled contests, Roland Barker '24 was sent to the mound by Big Green head coach and former New York Giant Jeff Tesreau to face the University of Rochester ball club. The senior did not disappoint his teammates, shutting out the Yellowjackets for nine innings without surrendering a hit, the sixth no-hitter in program history to that point.
Not much else of note from this game exists in the extensive Dartmouth archives, but let it be known that on this day 96 years ago, Roland Barker proved to be unhittable. Dartmouth would go on to finish the year with a terrific 19-10 record, including victories in the first two games at Georgia Tech and a seven-game winning streak late in the year.
