Baseball Heads to Cornell for Three Games This Weekend

DARTMOUTH (17-13, 8-4) at CORNELL (8-18, 3-9)
April 23 DH (11:30 a.m.) • April 24 (Noon) • Hoy Field • Ithaca, N.Y.

On the Road Again
Dartmouth is no stranger to the road, having played 23 of its 30 games outside of Hanover, posting a record of 7-8 in true road games and 4-4 in neutral site contests. The Big Green have even won three of their last four on the road, including a series victory at Yale two weeks ago.

This weekend, Dartmouth will need to find more success outside of the Upper Valley with three games at Cornell, a team that just ended a five-game skid with a 10-9, 10-inning triumph over Binghamton on Wednesday.

A Look Back at Last Week
• Dartmouth has won six straight games, including a three-game sweep of Princeton last weekend followed by an 11-4 victory over Siena on Wednesday.
• No fewer than five players have hit over .400 during this winning streak, led by Justin Murray (.522) and Connor Bertsch (.500).
• Among those red-hot players is Tyler Cox, who leads the Ivy League and ranks 11th nationally with a .419 batting average.
• Nathan Cmeyla has powered up, hitting a home run and three triples in this stretch, and he currently ranks fourth in Division I in triples per game (0.17, four in 24 games).
• The pitching staff has performed well with a 4.50 ERA with Justin Murray earning two wins, Cole Roland picking up two saves and Jack Metzger another.
• Pitching and defense go hand in hand, so it's no surprise the glove work has been stellar with just three errors (.986 fielding percentage).

Overall Record vs. Cornell
• Dartmouth owns the advantage in the all-time series at 99-86-1, meaning the next win will be its 100th against the Big Red.
• Cornell won the series in 2019, its first against the Big Green since winning the 2012 Ivy Championship Series in Ithaca.
• Three years prior in 2009, it was Dartmouth knocking off the Big Red in the ICS in Hanover.
• Big Green head coach Bob Whalen has a 40-28 mark in games against Cornell, while Big Red skipper Dan Pepicelli is 4-6 versus Dartmouth.

Scouting the Big Red
• Cornell has won one of its four Ivy League series, besting Yale two out of three, but also suffered series sweeps at the hands of Harvard and Penn.
• The Big Red are sixth in the league in scoring (6.1 runs per game while batting .247 with the fewest home runs (20).
• Nathan Waugh (.349/.449/.603) and Max Jensen (.333/.396/.538) have been the top hitters with the latter leading the team in doubles (11), runs (18) and RBIs (18).
• Cornell isn't afraid to push the action with 37 stolen bases and four players with at least five swipes.
• The pitching staff has struggled with an ERA of 9.03 on the season and 7.60 in Ivy play, partly due to control issues (7.2 per 9.0 IP).
• The Big Red have also had difficulty in the field with the lowest fielding percentage (.947) in the Ancient Eight with nearly two errors per game.

Last Time Against Cornell
These two teams last met on the final weekend of the 2019 season with Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen sitting on 599 victories for his career. The Big Red nearly kept him from reaching the milestone 600th win by taking the first two games, 8-6 and 2-1, but the Green finished the year on a high note with a 6-1 win in the finale.

In the opener, Cornell jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three and a half innings and 8-2 after five and a half. Dartmouth scored a run in the sixth and three more in the seventh, but Big Red closer John Natoli threw shutout ball for the final 2.1 innings to save the game. Nate Ostmo homered for the Green and Steffen Torgersen was 3-for-4 as both teams collected 14 hits.

The second game was a classic pitchers' duel. Justin Murray surrendered two runs in the third inning but nothing more in his 7.1 stanzas on the mound. Torgersen singled home Matt Feinstein, who had doubled, in the seventh, to put Dartmouth on the board, but that would be all for either team. The Big Green did put two runners on with two outs in the ninth, but Natoli was summoned for the final out and he obliged to save the game for Big Red starter Jonathan Zacharias.

Dartmouth ended a six-game skid in the final game of the year to give Whalen his 600th win. A scoreless battle was busted wide open in the sixth as the Green scored all six of their runs in the frame. Feinstein got the scoring started with a two-run single, Ostmo doubled home another run and Ubaldo Lopez belted a three-run shot to cap the inning. Nathan Skinner pitched 6.2 innings of three-hit ball, allowing just one run in the seventh before Max Hunter recorded the final seven outs.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• Senior RHP Nathan Skinner (4-2, 4.36) opens the series having won three of his four Ivy League starts, throwing between 104 and 109 pitches in each outing. Last week he held Princeton to two runs over 6.2 innings in a 6-2 victory. Cornell will likely counter with RHP Luke Yacinich (1-3, 6.70), who has struck out 27 batters in 24.0 Ivy innings but allowed 13 earned runs in his last two starts.
• Getting the game ball for game two will be senior LHP Trystan Sarcone (3-2, 4.34). The southpaw leadds the conference in ERA in league games (1.46), allowing no more than two earned runs in any of his four starts. The Big Red will also turn to a left-hander in LHP Spencer Edwards (2-4, 7.29), who has been pitching well of late with a 2.70 ERA over his last 20 innings, including an eight-inning stint at Princeton in which he allowed one run and struck out eight.
• Senior RHP Justin Murray (3-3, 8.53) has overcome a rough start to his season by going 3-0 in Ivy play with a 4.50 ERA, striking out 22 in 24.0 innings and holding opponents to a .261 average. If Cornell keeps its rotation from last week, rookie RHP Chris Ellison (0-0, 6.43) will take the mound for his second career start. Last week he was touched for five runs in five innings but did not get a decision in a 15-6 defeat.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth returns home to host Holy Cross on Tuesday before playing a three-game series at Harvard next weekend.

Carpenter Constructs First Win
Left-hander Luke Carpenter earned his first collegiate victory in a scheduled short start against Siena on April 20, holding the Saints scoreless for the first two innings as the Big Green bats tallied three in the bottom of the second. The runs kept coming for Dartmouth as it never relinquished the lead in an 11-4 win, making a winner out of the sophomore southpaw.

Reserve Showing
In that 11-4 win over Siena, freshman backup catcher Zackarie Casebonne gave Nathan Cmeyla a rest and came through with a three-run double in the second inning. Later in the game, sophomore Max Zajec, starting at first base in place of Justin Murray, lined a two-run single and drove in two more with a triple for a career-high four RBIs.

Going Long
Both junior Kolton Freeman and senior Kade Kretzschmar hit mammoth two-run homers in the 11-4 win over Siena. Freeman's cleared the netting beyond the left-field fence and reportedly landed on the other side of Park Street, his team-leading sixth bomb of the year. Kretzschmar, meanwhile, cleared the fence at the deepest point of Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park just to the right of straight-away center, a shot that went an estimated 415 feet, for his third long ball.of the season.

Brooms Come Out Against Princeton
Dartmouth swept a three-game series from Princeton on April 16-17, outscoring the Tigers by a 33-15 margin. The Big Green hit a whopping .369 over the weekend with an OPS of 1.019 as nine different players had at least one extra-base hit. It was the team's first sweep of an Ivy League team since the last time Princeton came to town in May of 2018 when Dartmouth outscored the Tigers by a combined 36-6 count.

Booming Bats Lead Six-Game Streak
During the current six-game winning streak, Dartmouth's longest since the beginning of May 2018, the Big Green have scored at least 10 runs in five of the six games. This is just the third time in program history (which dates back to 1866) that Dartmouth has accomplished that feat in a season — most recently in 2009 (five straight games) and before that, 1899 (also five straight). The Big Green have hit a collective .363 in the six games with a .449 on-base percentage, stealing 19 bases in as many attempts. The 16 runs in the series finale against Princeton was a season-high against a Division I opponent.

Murray Does It All
In the 16-7 win over the Tigers on April 17, senior Justin Murray was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate with three runs and a areer-high four RBIs, three coming on his second home run of the season. He also picked up the win on the mound, tossing four scoreless innings before leaving after six-plus stanzas.

Kretzschmar Keeps Cruising
Senior Kade Kretzschmar has been a rock in the middle of the order for the Big Green this season, leading the team with 33 RBIs, including a career-high five in the 16-7 win over Princeton, while smacking a team-high 17 extra-base hits and .570 slugging percentage. The clean-up hitter has also reached base in 22 consecutive games, the longest such streak for a Dartmouth hitter since Kyle Holbrook '18 had a streak of 24 straight games in 2018.

Nothing Sarcastic About Sarcone
When I say Trystan Sarcone has been exceptional since a rough first start, I mean it. The senior southpaw is 4-1 in his last six starts with a 2.75 ERA, striking out 32 batters and walking just nine over 36.0 innings. In three of his four Ivy League starts, he has struck out exactly seven batters, one shy of his career high, including his most recent start, a six-inning, one-run performance against Princeton on April 16. He also happens to be the first left-hander in the regular rotation since there were four in 2013.

Cmeyla Gets Triple Happy …
One wouldn't expect a catcher to be among the nation's leaders in triples, but Big Green backstop Nathan Cmeyla has suddenly shot near the top of the Division I leaders by smacking three three-baggers in his last five games, giving him four on the season. His rate of 0.17 triples per game is fourth nationally, and only 13 players have more across the country. Granted, his teammate, Kade Kretzschmar, also has four, but he has played in five more games, leaving him 16th in the nation on a per-game basis.

… While Murray Has Double the Fun
Senior Justin Murray ripped his 14th double of the season in the opening game against Princeton, tying him for the league lead. Twice he has hit three two-baggers in a game this season, and his per-game average of 0.52 doubles ranks fourth in the nation, just like Cmeyla's triples per game. Ironically, the last Big Green player to lead the nation in any statistical category was Jeff Keller '14 in doubles per game back in 2013.

Meet the Metzger
Junior Jack Metzger continued to shut down opposing hitters in the series against Princeton, closing out the first two wins while earning a save in the opener, his Ivy-leading fourth of the year. In the 6-2 victory, he retired all seven batters he faced on just 16 pitches to pick up that save, then he came back in game two to end a rally and get the final five outs in an 11-6 win. Over his last 10 appearances, the right-hander has a 1.59 ERA, surrendering eight hits and two walks in 17.0 innings while striking out 18.

Cox Keeps Rocking
While Kade Kretzschmar has reached base in 22 straight games, Tyler Cox isn't far behind at 18 in a row. Although the sophomore was hitless in three at-bats against Siena, the sophomore still leads the Ivy League with a .419 batting average, which ranks 11th in the nation. In conference play, he is batting a ridiculous .509 with 15 runs and 16 RBIs in 12 games.

Ivy-Leading ERA …
Dartmouth has pitched quite well against its Ancient Eight brethren, posting a team ERA of 3.77, which rates ahead of Penn by a little more than a third of a run (4.13), while holding opponents to a .239 average and walking a league-low 3.1 batters per nine innings.

… In a High-Offense Season
Dartmouth has posted that league-low ERA while five of the eight teams in the conference are averaging seven or more runs a game, including two teams at 11 or more (Columbia 11.2, Penn 11.0). The Big Green are hitting .302 as a team (fourth) and scoring 7.9 runs per game (third) despite hitting the fewest home runs (seven). But the team has perfected thievery against Ivy teams, swiping 23 bases in 23 attempts.

Five-Run First
Having split the first two games with Yale, Dartmouth was looking to get out to an early lead, and did it ever, scoring five runs in the top of the first en route to an 11-4 victory to clinch the series. Not only was it the most runs in the first inning for the Big Green this season, but the most in nearly 10 years. It took exactly six days for Dartmouth to accomplish the feat again, plating five in the first inning of the second game against Princeton on April 16. Apparently this phenomemon comes in bunches as Dartmouth scored exactly five runs in the first inning four times in a 16-day span in 2012.

Schedules