Home-Opening Weekend First Games in Hanover in Three Years

Saturday, March 26

Hanover, N.H.

11:30 AM

Dartmouth College

Brown

Dartmouth celebrates an 11-6 win over Hope College on March 23, 2022

Dartmouth is happy to be returning to Hanover to play baseball.

Photo by: Mike Janes

Home-Opening Weekend First Games in Hanover in Three Years

3/25/2022 3:31:00 PM | Baseball

ESPN+ (Game 1)ESPN+ (Game 2)ESPN+ (Game 3)Live Stats @BigGreenBasebal Dartmouth Notes

The last time the baseball team played on its home field, Bob Whalen won his 600th game

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (7-8, 0-0) vs. BROWN (3-9, 0-0)
March 26-27, 2022 • Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park • Hanover, N.H.

First Ivy (and Home) Games in 3 Years
It's been a long time coming. The last time Dartmouth played an Ivy League game, Bob Whalen was winning his 600th game as the Big Green head coach back on May 5, 2019. That was also the last game played at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Since then, Dartmouth has lost an entire season to the COVID-19 pandemic and most of another. There is not a single player on the Big Green roster who has ever had an at-bat against Brown, and only three pitchers who have thrown a pitch against the Bears. Just about every Ivy League series this year will be between teams that are very unfamiliar with one another.

Look Back at Spring Trip
• The eight-game trip to Florida didn't start favorably with four straight losses, but Dartmouth rebounded to win the last four, the team's first four-game winning streak since 2018.
• The Big Green hit .297/.385/.428 during the trip, averaging nearly eight runs a game.
• Dartmouth scored double-digit runs in three straight games (the last three) for the first time since the 2010 campaign.
• Kade Kretzschmar was very productive, going 12-for-29 (.414) with a pair of triples and 11 RBIs.
• Kolton Freeman hit three of the team's four home runs while leading the team in slugging at .769 with eight RBIs.
• Freeman also had the first four-hit game by a Dartmouth hitter this season in the win over Hope.
• Justin Murray hit four doubles in five games, giving him eight two-baggers on the season, which is tied for the Ivy League lead.
• Connor Bertsch hit safely in every game, extending his hitting streak to 12.
• Shane Bauer had the most success on the mound, throwing out of the bullpen in three games and posting a 1.80 ERA over 5.0 innings with eight strikeouts while earning his first collegiate victory in the 11-6 win over Hope.
• Zackarie Casebonne drove in five runs in the win over Bowdoin, the most by a Big Green hitter in exactly 35 months.

Overall Record vs. Brown
• Dartmouth has played the Bears 262 times since the first meeting in 1871, with the Big Green having the edge, 151-110-1.
• The Big Green have won the season series 10 of the past 12 seasons (splitting the other two).
• In the divisional era (1993-2017), Dartmouth was 63-38 against the Bears, including a divisional playoff victory in 2001.
• Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen is 69-46 against the Bears during his tenure with the Green.
• The first game between the two clubs came back in 1871, a 41-17 victory for Brown. No, that is not a football score.

Scouting the Bears
• Brown has victories over Memphis, USF and Holy Cross this season, but also dropped four games at Gardner-Webb, a team with whom the Big Green split four games.
• The Bears are averaging just over four runs a game, next-to-last in the Ivy League, with a team average of .228 that is dead last.
• Reece Rappoli is the lone player hitting over .300 at .382 with a .932 OPS.
• Brown does have 11 home runs, four by first baseman Ryan Marra.
• The Bears are not shy on the basepaths with 16 stolen bases by nine different players.
• The staff ERA of 5.34 is third in the conference while striking out a batter per inning.
• The heavy lifting has been done by Toby McDonough (1.96 in 23.0 IP) and Bobby Olsen (2.86 in 22.0 IP).
• Paxton Meyers has been their most effective reliever with a 3.72 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 9.2 IP.
• The defense has committed 17 errors in 12 games but thrown out 40 percent of base stealers (9-of-15).

Last Time Against the Bears
Way back in 2019, Dartmouth took two of three from Brown on the Bears' home field in Providence. A Matt Feinstein solo homer in the seventh broke a 3-3 tie and Ubaldo Lopez added a two-run blast in the frame as the Big Green went on to a 6-4 win in the opener. Max Hunter tossed two perfect innings to save the victory for Cole O'Connor (7.0 IP, 2 ER, 4 K).

Brown blew open game two with a six-run eighth, which made Dartmouth's three-run rally in the ninth on home runs by Trevor Johnson and Feinstein a moot point in a 13-6 defeat. Bears leadoff hitter Joe Lomuscio was 4-for-4 with two homers, four runs and four RBIs.

The Big Green jumped out to a 6-0 lead after five innings in the finale, then held on for a 7-5 triumph. Justin Murray tossed seven innings of two-run ball, and Nate Ostmo and Lopez both homered while Steffen Torgersen had three hits.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• Dartmouth will hand the ball to senior RHP Nathan Skinner (1-1, 2.65), its most consistent pitcher this season. He had a streak of 12.1 scoreless innings end in his last start after throwing a seven-inning shutout at Gardner-Webb. Junior RHP Bobby Olsen (0-0, 2.86) gets the nod for Brown with 22 strikeouts in as many innings this year while holding opponents to a .210 average.

• For game two, the Big Green have senior LHP Trystan Sarcone (2-1, 9.95) lined up to start. Since getting roughed up in his first outing, he has won his last two starts with solid efforts, striking out eight in 11.1 innings with just one walk. Brown will counter with another junior RHP in Tobey McDonough (1-1, 1.96) who has allowed one run or less in three of his four starts.

• Dartmouth will look to senior RHP Justin Murray (0-3, 15.43) to right his ship on Sunday. He pitched well at Gardner-Webb, but his usually excellent control has been absent thus far with 10 walks in 14 innings. For the Bears, rookie RHP Santhosh Gottam (1-2, 7.04) has been in control, with two walks in 15.1 innings, but allowed opponents to hit .354 thus far.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth will play its next eight games on the road, starting with a three-game series at Penn, which currently has the Ivy League's best record at 12-5. The Big Green would love to avenge just the second series sweep by a visiting team at Biondi Park when Penn last visited in 2019, including the epic 21-inning game.

Freeman Four Bags
Junior Kolton Freeman has been a great source of power for the Big Green this year, blasting five home runs in the first 15 games, including the first multi-homer game of his career at Gardner-Webb back on March 6. The last time a Dartmouth hitter launched two homers in the same game was on March 23, 2019, when Logan Adams '21 had two against Princeton. Freeman is also the first Big Green player to hit five long balls in the team's first 15 contests since Aaron Meyer '00 belted eight in the first 14 games of the 1999 campaign en route to matching his school record of 11 for the season.

~~Aluminum Ash Maple~~ Bertsch Bat
Connor Bertsch continues to pile up the hits, having hit safely in 12 consecutive games. The junior third baseman has a slash line of .353/.421/.667 for the season with four home runs and a team-high 34 total bases. On the spring trip, he had exactly one hit in the first seven games before collecting two in the final contest in Florida. He also reached base safely in 14 straight games dating back to his freshman year. In fact, he has only been kept off the bases in one game in his career — his first.

Double Your Pleasure …
Nine years ago, Jeff Keller '14 led all of Division I in doubles per game. It seems Justin Murray is trying to do so as well having swatted eight two-baggers in just 11 games as a hitter. The senior two-way player is a little short of leading the country, however, but he does rank third (0.62 per game) and leads the Ivy League.

… Double-Digit Your Fun …
For the first time since 2018, Dartmouth is riding a four-game winning streak after claiming the final four games in Florida on the spring trip. And in each of the last three games, the Big Green tallied double digits in the run column, a feat not matched since the 2010 squad won the final two games of the Ivy Championship Series and an NCAA tune-up five days later.

… Triple the Excitement
As a team Dartmouth has hit five triples, which in this day and age ranks the team in the top quarter of all Division I teams. Nice, but hardly noteworthy. Of those five triples, senior Kade Kretzschmar has three, which is tied for ninth in the country. His per game average of 0.21 triples per game ranks second in the conference and eighth nationally. The leader, Gabe Vasquez of Texas Southern, has legged out six three-baggers in 19 games.

Bauer to the Master
The pitching staff has been showing a bit of rust with the Big Green only playing seven games over the previous two years. But sophomore Shane Bauer has been quite effective out of the bullpen with a 1.69 ERA in four appearances spanning 5.1 innings. The right-hander picked up his first collegiate victory in his most recent outing, hurling the final 2.1 frames of the 11-6 win over Hope, surrendering just one hit while fanning five.

Meet the Metzger
Junior Jack Metzger has been lights out in his last two relief outings on then mound, tossing five scoreless frames on just two hits without a walk while striking out six. The right-hander had no room for error against Bradley on March 20, entering with a 5-4 lead to start the seventh, and he was lights out, retiring the first seven batters he faced and inducing a double play to erase the Braves' only base runner against him for his first career save.

Imposing Will
Plenty of firsts for pitchers early in the season with a young staff and freshman Danny Will is no expection. The rookie southpaw allowed one run over 2.2 innings out of the bullpen against Williams, completing the fifth, after which the Big Green bats scored three runs to take the lead for good, giving Will his first career victory.