Baseball to Play Final Ivy Road Series of the Season

Friday, April 28

Providence, R.I. / Murray Stadium

3:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Brown

Big green huddle during baseball action versus Massachusetts

Photo by: Doug Austin

Baseball to Play Final Ivy Road Series of the Season

4/27/2023 5:11:00 PM | Baseball

ESPN+ (Friday)ESPN+ (Game 2)ESPN+ (Game 3)Live Stats Dartmouth Notes Series History

Dartmouth has won won 11 of the last 13 series with Brown, splitting the other two

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (1-32, 0-15) at BROWN (8-23, 5-10)
April 28-29, 2023 • Murray Stadium • Providence, R.I.

Penultimate Ivy Series
Dartmouth is looking to end the month of April on a high note with three games at Brown this weekend. The series has been moved up a day, however, with a single game on Friday and two more scheduled for Saturday, though weather is likely to play an even bigger role in the events of this series.

Overall Record vs. Brown
• Dartmouth has played the Bears 265 times since the first meeting in 1871, with the Big Green having the edge, 153-111-1.
• The Big Green have won the season series 11 of the past 13 seasons (splitting the other two).
• In the divisional era (1993-2017), Dartmouth was 63-38 against the Bears, including a divisional playoff victory in 2001.
• Dartmouth head coach Bob Whalen is 71-47 against the Bears during his tenure with the Green.
• The Big Green have had their fare share of success in Providence with a 63-42 record against Brown on its home field in the last 100 years.
• The first game between the two clubs came back in 1871, a 41-17 victory for Brown. No, that is not a football score.

Last Year Against the Bears
• Dartmouth opened its Ivy League slate at home against Brown, taking two of three to win the series.
• The first game featured a pitching duel that had the teams tied at three before Kade Kretzschmar launched a two-run homer in the seventh and Jack Metzger pitched two perfect innings to earn his first save in relief of Nathan Skinner, who struck out a career-high 10 in seven stanzas.
• Only two runs were scored through seven innings of the second game, both by the Big Green in the second on a Kolton Freeman triple, Connor Bertsch double and a steal of home. But Brown got one back in the eighth and threatened to score more, loading the bases with two outs when a flyball was missed for a three-base error, clearing the bases and giving the Bears a 4-2 victory.
• The rubber game was never in doubt as Dartmouth scored early and often in a 14-1 romp. Tyler Cox, Kretzschmar and James House each drove in three runs while Cox and Nathan Cmeyla had three hits in support of seven shutout innings by Justin Murray, who struck out a career-high 10 batters.

Scouting Brown
• The Bears lost nine straight to begin the season and only once have won consecutive games, that coming during their three-game sweep at Cornell three weeks ago.
• Brown is averaging about 4.5 runs a game on the season and five in league play with an overall slash line of .242/.349/.337, leaving them seventh in the Ancient Eight in OPS.
• Mika Peterson leads the Bears with a .346 average, but Jacob Burley (.321/.423/.413) and Derian Morphew (.285/.376/.462) have been the most dangerous hitters.
• Ryan Marra has four of the team's 13 homers, and Morphew is the top threat on the bases with seven swipes.
• The Bears pitchers have posted a 6.25 ERA on the year, virtually tied for fourth in the league, while recording the second most strikeouts per nine innings (9.74).
• Dylan Reid (4.41 ERA) and Bobby Olsen (5.25) have been the most effective starters, while Jack Seppings (4 saves) and Christian Keel have been a strong duo out of the bullpen.
• Brown has similar defensive numbers to the Big Green with an equal number of errors (44), but opponents have been far more successful on the bases with 63 stolen bases in 73 attempts.
• Grant Achilles (Wake Forest '06) is in his 10th year leading the Bears' program, taking over as head coach midway through the 2014 campaign. He has a record of 93-193 guiding the team and a 55-95 mark in league play. Prior to coming to Brown, he had stops as an assistant at Georgetown, his alma mater, Western Carolina and Charlotte.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth will play its final mid-week contest next Tuesday at home against Merrimack before concluding the home slate with a three-game series against Cornell. The Big Green will honor the senior class between games of the doubleheader on Saturday, May 6.

Bats Starting to Come to Life
It has been a long season both at the plate and on the mound for the Big Green, but the bats showed encouraging signs at Columbia on April 22-23. Dartmouth recorded a season-high 18 hits while matching a season-best 13 runs in the second game of the series, then followed that up with 10 more knocks in the finale. And with 10 more hits at Holy Cross, the Big Green have double-digit safeties in three straight games for the first time all year.

Krew Brews Up Four Hits
Sophomore Elliot Krewson has been a pest at the plate over the last three weeks, hitting .389 (21-for-54) with a .431 OBP. His surge at the plate has boosted his season average to .311, and in the last three games he has nine hits in 16 at-bats, including his first career four-hit performance at Holy Cross on April 25. For the year, he leads the team with 11 multi-hit games.

Triple Trouble
If Tyler Robinson is going to get an extra-base hit, the smart money would that hit being a triple. The junior hit his team-leading third three-bagger of the season and the eighth of his career at Holy Cross on April 25. That is two-thirds the total of extra-base hits he has to his name, which includes three doubles (all coming this season) and one home run (hit last year). His five triples in 2022 ranked among he top 25 nationally, and he was fourth among Division I hitters in triples per game.

Holy Cross-ed Up
Dartmouth jumped out to an early 5-1 lead at Holy Cross on April 25 with its sights set on ending its long losing streak. But the Crusaders bounced back with six unanswered runs, beating the Big Green for the second time this year and extending their skid to 25 games. The lesson from this is don't schedule Holy Cross twice in a season; the last time the two teams played two games was in 1979, the year that had the previous longest losing streak (16 games).