Bats Silenced in 3-1 Loss to Holy Cross

Tuesday, April 26

Hanover, N.H.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

19-15

Holy Cross

13-32

Holy Cross

Dartmouth

Kunaal Verma pitches at UMass Lowell, April 5, 2022

Kunaal Verma retired all six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings.

Photo by: Brian Foley

4/26/2022 6:26:00 PM | Baseball

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Justin Murray ended the shutout bid in the ninth with his third homer of the season

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Averaging 10.7 runs a game for the last nine contests, the Dartmouth bats were held in check by three Holy Cross pitchers as the visiting Crusaders (13-32) handed the Big Green (19-15) a 3-1 defeat on Wednesday afternoon at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Senior Justin Murray spoiled the shutout bid with a high-arcing home run to lead off the ninth, his third long ball of the season, but it turned out to be the fourth and final hit for Dartmouth.

Matt Remley (1-4) earned the win with three no-hit innings, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced in a scheduled short start. Augie Walters then tossed three scoreless innings of relief with three strikeouts and Payton Sutman handled the final three frames, allowing just the solo home run in the ninth.

Holy Cross had just six hits of their own, but it put a run on the board in the first thanks to a two-out double by Sean Scannell followed by a hard RBI single that glanced off the glove of the second baseman into right field for a 1-0 lead.

Brady Chappell (0-2) exited from the mound in the second with one down and two on, and reliever Danny Will issued a walk to load the bases. The left-hander then induced a grounder to third, but the throw to the plate for the force pulled catcher Zackarie Casebonne off the plate, allowing the unearned run to score.

The game remained 2-0 into the sixth when the Crusaders began the inning with consecutive singles. A sacrifice bunt put the two into scoring position, and Sam Kirkpatrick greeted reliever Shane Bauer by hitting a fly to right that allowed the runner to tag and score for a 3-0 lead.

Dartmouth finally got its first hit of the game when sophomore Tyler Cox lined the first pitch of the inning through the left side for a clean single. Murray later smacked a double over the center fielder's head, but it came one pitch after Cox was gunned down trying to steal second, and Murray was left stranded at third.

Bauer and senior Kunaal Verma retired the final nine Holy Cross hitters in order to keep the Big Green within striking distance, but the offense was unable to mount a comeback similar to Sunday when it rallied from a five-run deficit at Cornell.

Connor Peek had two of the Crusaders' six hits with a single and a double, and Tyler Mudd scored two of their three runs.

Cox and Murray accounted for all four Dartmouth hits with two apiece as Cox — the Ivy League's leading hitter — enjoyed his 20th multi-hit game to raise his average to .423. Murray's double was his league-leading 17th of the season to go with his third round-tripper.

Dartmouth (10-5 Ivy) will next play at Harvard (16-18, 7-7 Ivy) for a crucial three-game Ivy League series this weekend that will be streamed live on ESPN+. The Big Green are three back in the loss column behind Columbia and Penn and cannot fall any further back before playing the Lions on May 14-15 to have a chance to move up in the standings and qualify for the Ivy League Championship Series on May 21-22.

Notes: Holy Cross has won the last three meetings between the two teams … senior Kade Kretzschmar had his hitting streak end at 11 games and his streak of reaching base safely snapped at 25 games, the longest such streak by a Big Green player in 13 years … Cox, however, has reached base in each of the last 22 contests.