Completed Event: Baseball versus Cornell on April 27, 2025 , Win , 7, to, 4
Final
Baseball
vs Cornell
7
4
Saturday, April 22
New York, N.Y. / Robertson Field
11:30 AM
Dartmouth College
at
Columbia
Photo by: Doug Austin
Big Green Baseball Headed to the Big Apple
4/21/2023 10:51:00 AM | Baseball
Dartmouth has three games at the defending Ivy champs, Columbia
DARTMOUTH (1-28, 0-12) at COLUMBIA (19-13, 8-4)
April 22-23, 2023 • Robertston Field at Satow Stadium • New York, N.Y.
April 22-23, 2023 • Robertston Field at Satow Stadium • New York, N.Y.
Big Green in the Big Apple
Dartmouth travels to New York City in search of its first win in over a month with three games against the defending Ivy League champion Columbia Lions. Going to the city that never sleeps will hopefully help the lumber wake from its recent slumber as the Big Green have scored just six runs in their last four games.
Overall Record vs. Columbia
• Dartmouth owns a sizable advantage in the all-time series, 114-81, and has won nine of the last 13 contests.
• These two teams squared off in the Ivy Championship Series five times in an eight-year span, splitting the first two showdowns with Columbia winning in 2008 and the Big Green in 2010. But the Lions took the title in three consecutive years (2013-15), all of which were played in New York.
• Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen has a 50-31 mark in games against Columbia and is 27-19 head-to-head against Lions coach Brett Boretti.
• Columbia has been playing on FieldTurf at its home park — Robertson Field at Satow Stadium — since 2008. The Big Green are 13-10 on the turf and 49-47 in New York dating back to 1923.
Last Year Against the Lions
• Dartmouth not only kept Columbia from winning the regular-season title outright by taking two of three from the Lions in Hanover, it denied them the chance to host the Ivy Championship Series, though it hardly mattered as Columbia defeated Penn to earn the league's automatic bid to an NCAA Regional.
• The Big Green won the opening game, 11-8, thanks to a go-ahead three-run homer by Kade Kretzschmar in the seventh and four insurance runs in the eighth, while Jack Metzger earned the win by providing 4.1 innings of strong relief.
• Game two went to Columbia as Cole Hage had four of the Lions' 12 hits. Nathan Cmeyla's two-run bomb was not enough for Dartmouth.
• The Green closed out the 2022 season in style with a walk-off, 12-11 victory in the 10th on Peter O'Toole's RBI single after Cmeyla tied the game in the ninth with a two-out, two-run round-tripper.
Scouting the Lions
• Although Columbia played one of the most difficult non-conference schedules in the country, it is one of just two teams in the league with an overall record over .500 at 19-13 while sitting in second place in the Ivy standings at 8-4, one game behind Penn.
• Offense is the biggest strength of this Lions club, leading the conference in nine offensive categories, including all three slash averages as well as runs, homers and walks.
• Seven regulars in the lineup are hitting at least .300, led by the potent combination of Andy Blake (.385, 9 HR, 35 RBIs), Griffin Palfrey (.383, 4 HR, 35 RBIs) and Hayden Schott (.359, 10 HR, 26 RBIs, who rank 2-3-4 in the league in batting.
• Columbia is third in the Ancient Eight with a 6.25 ERA, though that puts them in the bottom half of Division I.
• Joe Sheets and Andy Leon have made a formidable 1-2 combination in the rotation (more on them later) while four different relievers have at least one save with Justin Tucker tied for the league lead with five.
• The Lions have committed just over one error per game with 36 miscues for a .969 fielding percentage, third in the Ivy. But they have turned the most double plays (30) and had the most success at stopping the running game (thrown out 35.5 percent of base stealers).
• Brett Boretti (Davidson '94) is in his 18th season as the ringmaster of the Lions with six Ivy titles to his credit. The three-time Ivy League Coach of the Year has had 109 players receive all-conference honors, including 36 on the first team during his tenure. He spent five years as the head coach at Franklin & Marshall before coming to New York, and his overall record is 465-466-1 with a mark of 349-384-1 at Columbia.
What's Up Next
Dartmouth will continue its eight-game road trip with a contest at Holy Cross on Tuesday at 5 p.m. followed by a three-game series at Brown on Saturday and Sunday.
Margin of Defeat
Dartmouth suffered a 20-1 loss at the hands of the Siena Saints on April 19, matching the second-largest margin of defeat since the dawn of the 20th century. Only once has Dartmouth suffered a loss by 20 or more runs since 1900, that coming almost exactly 45 years earlier to the day in a 23-0 defeat handed out by UConn on April 18, 1978.
Stellar Starting Pitching
Dartmouth's current weekend starting pitchers struggled in the early part of the season, but they have really come into their own of late. Over the last seven starts by Jack Metzger, Trystan Sarcone and Devin Milberg, the trio has combined to throw 38.2 innings while surrendering just nine earned runs for an ERA of 2.09. Milberg is still building up his stamina, but in three starts has yet to allow a run over 8.2 innings. Sarcone tossed seven scoreless stanzas against Yale and has a 1.93 ERA in 14 innings during this stretch. And Metzger has hurled eight innings in each of his two starts, striking out 11 and walking just one while posting a solid 3.38 ERA.
Beware the Ides of March
Back on March 15, Dartmouth lost a hard-fought, 4-3 game at South Florida. Little did the team realize that would be the start of the current 21-game losing streak, the longest in program history. The previous longest was 16 games, suffered during the 1979 campaign. Oddly enough, it was a 15-6 win over Boston College that snapped the skid, something this year's team could not repeat when it played the Eagles after its 16th straight defeat.
Grad Transfer Updates
There are currently five former Big Green players that graduated from Dartmouth and are continuing their college careers elsewhere as graduate transfers. Here is a quick rundown of those players:
• Kade Kretzschmar '22: The 2022 Ivy League Player of the Year is starting in the outfield at California and is on an absolute tear, earning National Player of the Week honors on April 17. He leads the 17-16 Bears with a .333 average and 10 home runs, not to mention 27 RBIs, while collecting 20 hits in his last 27 at-bats with five long balls.
• Justin Murray '22: After receiving first-team All-Ivy honors as a utility player and second-team honors as a pitcher last year, Murray is playing first base regularly and closing on the mound for the 18-15 Cougars, hitting .323 with four home runs — including a pinch-hit, two-run shot in the ninth to tie up Minnesota on March 18 — and 29 RBIs. He also has pitched in 12 games, posting a 2-0 record with five saves and a 2.04 ERA, striking out 22 in 17.2 IP.
• Cole Roland '22: Due to injuries and the pandemic, Roland didn't actually pitch until his fourth year at Dartmouth, posting a 3.90 ERA in 30.0 innings with a 2-1 record, four saves and 37 strikeouts. He is now pitching at second-ranked Wake Forest (31-5) and has a 1.47 ERA with a 1-0 record and one save, allowing just seven hits and three runs over 18.1 innings while striking out 31 batters.
• Ubaldo Lopez '21: The product of Archbishop McCarthy in Florida and 2019 Big Green leader in home runs, doubles and slugging is now in his second season at Georgetown (21-16). Last year he walloped 19 home runs in 48 games, and this year he leads the team in average (.369), homers (14), doubles (11), runs (41), walks (25), OBP (.500), slugging (.777) and OPS (1.277).
• Jonah Jenkins '21: This right-hander pitched at San Francisco last year and is now at Ohio State. In 12 relief outings and one start, he has been terrific with a 4-2 record, two saves and 2.06 ERA, striking out 30 in 35.0 innings.
MLB Watch
In the summer of 2014, Kyle Hendricks '12 made his MLB debut with the Chicago Cubs and finished his rookie year with a 7-2 record over 13 starts with a 2.46 ERA. Nine years later he is an established big leaguer who led both leagues with an ERA of 2.13 in 2016, finishing third in the Cy Young balloting and helping the Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years. In nine seasons in Chicago, Hendricks boasts an 87-61 record with an ERA of 3.46 while striking out 7.4 batters per nine innings. Those 87 victories are the most ever for a Dartmouth alum, as are his 1,079 strikeouts. He began the season on the 15-day IL.
One of Hendricks' classmates, Cole Sulser '12, debuted in September 2019 with Tampa Bay and did not allow a run in seven appearances. He then pitched for two seasons for the Baltimore Orioles before relieving in 39 games for the Miami Marlins last year. For his career, he has a record of 7-13 with 15 saves and an ERA of 3.83 over 131.2 inning with 143 strikeouts. He pitched in three games in the first week of the season but was placed on the 60-day IL on April 9.
Sulser's younger brother, Beau Sulser '16, reached the big leagues last year with the Pittsburgh Pirates before getting traded mid-season to the Orioles. He appeared in 10 games, tossing 22.1 innings while recording a 3.63 ERA, but this season he is playing in Korea.
Dartmouth also has one other former player toiling in the minors in 2023 — C Ben Rice '22, who is playing in the South Atlantic League for the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades. After two weeks of the season, he sports a .348 average with two homers, .583 OBP and .696 slugging percentage for a 1.279 OPS.
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