Big Green Host Quakers in Home-Opening Series

DARTMOUTH (1-16, 0-3) vs. PENN (10-10, 1-2)
April 2-3, 2023 • Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park • Hanover, N.H.

Home-Opening Series
The road has not been a kind place to Dartmouth, so the Big Green are happy to return to Hanover and finally play the host against last year's Ivy League runner-up, Penn. The Quakers were the only team to win a conference series from Dartmouth last year, so the Green would like to return the favor.

Overall Record vs. Penn
• Dartmouth has played the Quakers 183 times since the first meeting in 1891, and thanks to Penn's series victory last year, the Quakers own the slight edge overall, 91-90-2.
• Penn has given the Green more problems than any other team since 2013, going 13-5-1 in the 19 games.
• The last time the Quakers came to town, they handed Dartmouth three consecutive losses while scoring in double digits each game, including the 21-inning marathon that ended in a 21-15 Big Green defeat.
• Coach Whalen is 31-31-1 against Penn during his tenure, including a 14-13 record in Hanover but only 4-7 since Biondi Park came into existence.
• Since the Red Rolfe Field dedication before the 1970 season, Penn holds a slim 20-18-1 advantage, but the Big Green are 37-31-1 since 1923 against the Quakers on their home field.

Kids Run the Bases Postponed

Due to games being rescheduled because of inclement weather, the new date for Kids Run the Bases will be Sunday, April 16th at 12 p.m.

Scouting the Quakers
• While Penn won three-game series against Lamar, Tulane and UMass, the 2022 Ivy League runner-up dropped two of three at home against Harvard last weekend to start league play.
• The Quakers are only one of two Ancient Eight teams with a .500 record entering the weekend with Columbia sharing an identical 10-10 mark.
• Penn ranks second in the league in runs per game (6.2) and batting average (.277).
• Ben Miller has been the team's most dangerous hitter at .333/.400/.655 with a Quaker-best six home runs, and his 18 RBIs are second only to Wyatt Henseler.
• The Quakers are a fairly aggressive team at the plate with the fewest walks drawn per game (3.5) and the second-most strikeouts per contest (10.2).
• The pitching staff boasts the best ERA in the league by far at 4.29, nearly two full runs lower than Brown's 6.19.
• All three weekend starters have an ERA under 4.00, and the staff as a whole has held opposing bats to a .238 batting average.
• The defense has been pretty solid as well, ranking second in the league with a .973 fielding percentage and 19 errors in its 20 games, plus has gunned down 25 percent of would-be base stealers.
• John Yurkow (Rowan '99) is in his 10th year as the Quakers' head coach with a record of 179-57-1 entering the series. He has guided Penn to a winning record in five of his seven full seasons, coaching two Players of the Year, two Pitchers of the Year, three Rookies of the Year and 53 All-Ivy selections.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• The first game of the series will feature Dartmouth RHP Jack Metzger (0-3, 8.06) matching up against Penn LHP Owen Coady (1-2, 2.45). Metzger has displayed the best control in the league this year, leading the loop in both strikeout-to-walk ratio and fewest walks per nine innings. Since a rough outing against national power South Carolina to start the year, Coady has given up a mere three earned runs over 25 innings (1.08 ERA) but did not get a decision last week despite twirling seven shutout stanzas against Harvard.
• LHP Trystan Sarcone (0-4, 13.76) will try to subdue the Quaker lineup in game two. A second-team All-Ivy selection a year ago, Sarcone has had a rocky start to the 2023 campaign and last week surrendered six runs, four earned, over 4.1 innings while fanning five. For Penn, RHP Cole Zaffiro (2-1, 3.42) is ready to go against Sarcone having allowed just one run over his last 13 innings with 16 strikeouts.
• For the series finale, rookie RHP Eddie Albert (0-2, 7.47) gets the nod. Princeton touched him for five runs over 3.2 innings after three straight solid outings. Opposing him will be RHP Ryan Dromboski (2-2, 3.74), who had allowed exactly two runs in each of his first four starts before giving up four to Harvard in 3.0 innings last weekend.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth will continue its 11-game home stand on Tuesday with UMass Lowell in town for a game at 3 p.m. Next weekend, the Crimson of Harvard will invade Biondi Park for a three-game Ivy series beginning with a Saturday doubleheader at 11:30 a.m. followed by Sunday's finale at noon.

Wrong End of the Broom
In the last 35 regular-season Ivy League series Dartmouth has played in, dating back to early in the 2016 season, the Big Green have swept their opponent on four occasions. Among the victims is Princeton twice with both instances coming since the conference schedule changed to three-game series against every Ivy team before the 2018 season. This year, the Tigers turned the tables on Dartmouth, sweeping the Green in Princeton on March 24-26. It was just the second time they had been swept in a league series in those last 35 series, the other coming against this weekend's opponent in 2019.

Strength of Schedule
The Ivy League as a whole has played a robust schedule as evidenced by the eighth-best strength of schedule (according to the Boyd's World ISR rankings). Dartmouth is a big part of that ranking with the 45th most difficult slate. Only Columbia has played a tougher schedule, ranked 20th, and two other teams are in the top 75 — Princeton (62) and Brown (71).

Hower You Doing?
Sophomore Jackson Hower had a slow start to the season, collecting just three hits in his first 25 at-bats. But the outfielder found his stroke in the final game at Princeton, going a perfect 4-for-4 with a double to his credit. It was his first career four-hit game and the third by a Big Green player this season, joining Tyler Cox and Kolton Freeman.

House Money
Of the 11 runs Dartmouth scored during the three-game series at Princeton, five were driven in by senior James House. In the opener, the designated hitter hit a two-run triple and an RBI single, and he added a two-run double in the final game, boosting his season RBI total from two to seven.

Solo Performance
Home runs have been a rare commodity for the Big Green thus far with just seven long balls in the first 17 games, the fewest in the Ivy League. Not only that, but all seven bombs have come with the bases empty, minimizing the scoring production.

Meet the Metzger, Control Artist
Senior Jack Metzger has been terrific in keeping extra runners off the bases this year. The right-hander not only leads the Ivy League in both fewest walks allowed per nine innings (1.05) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.67), he ranks among the top 25 nationally in both categories as well (11th and 21st, respectively).

Carroll Me Home (Run)
Sophomore catcher Luke Carroll was not projected to play a lot this season with incumbent Nathan Cmeyla on the roster. But due to an injury to Cmeyla, he has stepped up at the plate and behind it. Last weekend in the Ivy League opener at Princeton, Carroll blasted his team-leading second home run of the season, and three of his four hits thus far have gone for extra bases. Defensively, he has gunned down two of the six opponents that have tried to steal on him as well.

Schedules