Baseball Takes on Ivy League's Top Offense at Penn

DARTMOUTH (9-9, 2-1) at PENN (14-7, 2-1)
April 2-3, 2022 • Meiklejohn Stadium • Philadelphia, Pa.

Big Test on Road for Big Green
Coming off a series victory at home to start Ivy League play, Dartmouth plays its next conference series at Penn, a team that won two of three at Columbia last weekend. Fans might remember that the last time these two teams locked horns, the Quakers came away with a sweep in Hanover, including a 21-15 triumph in the longest game in league history (21 innings). The Big Green would like nothing more than to return the favor when they show up in Philadelphia this weekend.

Look Back at Last Weekend
• Dartmouth nearly swept the three games from Brown, but settled for wins in the opener and finale to start Ivy play at 2-1.
• Tyler Cox led the Big Green with seven hits and five runs in the three games, while Kade Kretzschmar and James House both hit .400 or better in the series.
• Kretzschmar played the hero in game one, belting a two-run homer in the seventh to break a 3-3 deadlock, lifting Dartmouth to a 5-3 win.
• Nathan Skinner struggled on the mound early, but settled in to strike out a career-high 10 batters over seven stanzas, while Jack Metzger tossed two perfect innings for his second save.
• In game two, Trystan Sarcone twirled six shutout innings while striking out seven, but his 2-0 lead did not hold as Brown scored four in the eighth, three of which were unearned, to steal the game, 4-2.
• The finale belonged to Justin Murray, who was even better than Sarcone, going seven innings without allowing a run and, like Skinner, striking out a career-high 10 batters. He also scored three runs to help his own cause in the 14-1 win.
• The offense as a whole pounded out 19 hits as seven players had at least two, including Cox and Nathan Cmeyla with three apiece.
• Cox, Kretzschmar and House each drove in three runs as well, with Kretzschmar starting the onslaught with a three-run double in the first.

Overall Record vs. Penn
• Dartmouth has played the Quakers 180 times times since the first meeting in 1891, and those games have been split evenly, 89-89-2.
• Penn has given the Green more problems than any other team since 2013, going 11-4-1 in the 16 games.
• Four of the last seven games have gone into extra innings with the Quakers going 3-0-1 in those contests.
• Coach Whalen is 30-29-1 against Penn during his tenure, including a 7-13-1 at Meiklejohn Stadium since it opened in 2000.
• Since 1923, Dartmouth is 41-43-1 in Philadelphia against Penn.

Scouting the Quakers
• Penn made a name for itself out of the gate by winning its opening series at Texas A&M, plus has an eight-game winning streak to its credit this season.
• The Quakers are the Ivy League's top offensive team, leading the loop in scoring (7.1 runs per game) and all three slash lines (.309/.388/.456).
• Third baseman Wyatt Hensseler has the been the most dangerous at the plate with a .438/.520/.775 line, seven homers and 27 RBIs.
• Two other regulars are hitting over .350 — Jackson Appel (.380) and Tommy Courtney (.355), who are also the top base stealing threats with five and four thefts, respectively.
• The pitching staff has posted an ERA of 4.91 that ranks second in the league just behind Harvard (4.85) with 18 different pitchers making at least one appearance.
• Penn pitchers have also struck out a league-high 213 batters, or 10.8 per nine innings.
• The Quakers have the second-best fielding percentage (.972) in the league but also have the most passed balls (14) and allowed the most stolen bases (41).

Last Time Against the Quakers
My apologies to Dartmouth fans for going into any detail about the series in 2019, particularly the 21-inning loss. But I am here to inform.
The first game swallowed the doubleheader whole, as numerous Ivy League and NCAA records fell in the six-hour, 22-minute affair that ended with Penn on top. Both teams scored in each of the first three innings, leaving the scored tied at five. The Quakers took a 10-6 lead with a five-run eighth, only to have Dartmouth score one in the bottom half and three in the ninth to send it to extras. If only they knew at the time …

The Big Green loaded the bases with nobody out in the 10th but could not score. Penn took a 13-10 lead in the 13th only to allow three runs in the bottom half, and the game went scoreless from there through the 20th. The Quakers opened the floodgates in the 21st with eight runs, and after Dartmouth tried to rally with two of their own, the game ended at 21-15.

Penn was not kind toward Big Green pitchers the next day, scoring a combined 28 runs in 13-1 and 15-3 victories to become the first team to sweep Dartmouth in a series of at least three games at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• The pitcher that took the loss in the 21-inning marathon, senior RHP Nathan Skinner (2-1, 3.00), will get the first shot at quieting the Quaker bats. He struggled early against Brown, then dominated, earning the 5-3 win and a career-high 10 strikeouts in seven innings. Penn will counter with RHP Kevin Eaise (1-1, 4.94), who posted his best start of the season last week with six innings of two-run ball for a win over Columbia.
• Senior LHP Trystan Sarcone (2-1, 6.75) will take the ball for game two. He has gotten better each start this season and held Brown scoreless over six stanzas last weekend. The Quakers will make it a southpaw showdown with LHP Joe Miller (3-1, 4.76), who earned the victory in the 21-inning game three years ago and had a 3.05 ERA until his most recent start.
• For the finale, senior RHP Justin Murray (1-3, 10.29) will look to build upon his stellar start against the Bears in which he threw four-hit, shutout ball for seven-plus innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts. Penn has not announced a game three starter as it will likely depend how its bullpen is deployed in the doubleheader on Saturday.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth will continue an eight-game road trek with a non-conference tilt at UMass Lowell on Tuesday. The River Hawks enter this weekend with a 7-14 record and have won the last three meeting with the Big Green.

Brown Goes Down Again
With the 14-1 win on March 27, Dartmouth clinched a series victory over Brown for the 11th time in the last 13 seasons they have played. The other two series in that span were split (back when the league was split into divisions and these two played four games in a series). So the Big Green are 37-12 against the Bears since the last time Brown won a series from Dartmouth (2007).

Hurray for Murray
Senior Justin Murray had struggled mightily on the mound prior to conference play with an ERA north of 15. But he put that all behind him in his first Ivy League start of the season, holding Brown scoreless on four hits over seven-plus innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. He was a lot better than he needed to be as his offense scored 14 runs for him, which he contributed to by going 1-for-4 with two walks and three runs himself.

Hit Parade
While Murray was dominating on the mound, Dartmouth was pulverizing Bear pitchers to the tune of 19 hits and 14 runs. Every batter in the lineup had at least one hit (seven had at least two), eight of the nine starters scored a run, and eight of nine drove in at least one. The 14 runs were the most for the Big Green against a Division I opponent since beating Harvard on April 22, 2019, 15-7. And the 19 hits were the most in a nine-inning game since racking up 22 in a 23-1 win at Columia on March 30, 2019.

Starters In Control
Dartmouth's three starters on the mound against Brown were all impressive, combining for a 1.35 ERA over 20.0 innings, walking three while punching out 27. Trystan Sarcone had the best start of his career with six scoreless stanzas and seven strikeouts, and Nathan Skinner became the first Big Green pitcher in nearly four years to strikeout 10 in a game, going seven innings. All told, those three have combined for 18 consecutive shutout innings.

Cox Rocks
Sophomore Tyler Cox leads the team and ranks sixth in the Ivy League with a .371 average entering the weekend. He has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 games, posting a .426 average (23-for-54) in that span. The offensive catalyst has scored 18 runs in the 18 games thus far, putting him fourth in the league on a per-game basis.

Meet the Metzger
Junior Jack Metzger has been lights out in his last four relief outings on the mound, tossing 8.2 scoreless innings on just two hits without a walk while striking out 11. The stretch began against Bradley on March 20 when he pitched one-hit ball for three frames to earn his first career save in a 5-4 victory. And he was stellar against Brown, picking up another save with two perfect innings in a 5-3 win, and 1.2 more scoreless stanzas later that day in game two.

Kretzschmar is Klutch
Kade Kretzschmar has come through in key moments time and again this season, and the first game against Brown was no different. With the score tied at three in the seventh, Kretzschmar sent a pitch into the netting above the left-field fence for a two-run homer, which proved to be the game-winner as Dartmouth finished off the 5-3 victory. Of the senior's eight extra-base hits thus far, five have come with runners in scoring position, including all three triples. And Kretzschmar is also on a 10-game hitting streak entering the weekend.

House of Horrors for Opposing Pitchers
Since playing in just two of the first 12 games mostly due to injury, James House has been terrorizing pitchers. The junior is hitting .409 (9-for-22) in the last six games with a double, two triples and 11 RBIs. That's a pretty nice foundation for a House …

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