Baseball Posts Shutout, Earns Series Win over Columbia

Monday, March 30

Hanover, N.H.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

5-13, 2-4

Columbia

5-15, 3-3

Columbia

Dartmouth

Baseball Posts Shutout, Earns Series Win over Columbia

3/30/2026 5:27:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Postgame Interview

By: Rebecca Osowski

HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth baseball wrapped the regular season series with the Columbia Lions, Monday, holding them to two hits en route to a 5-0 win.

This is the Big Green's first series win over the Lions since 2022 and first Ivy League series win under Blake McFadden after Dartmouth took the first game of the series on Sunday, 3-2 in ten innings.

With the win, Dartmouth moves to 5-12 on the season and 2-4 in Ivy League play.

The Big Green opened the scoring early, taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Sam Andersen reached on an infield single before Chris Miller hit his first home run of the season to give his team a two-run lead.

"It was awesome to get ahead early," Interim Head Coach Blake McFadden said. "Coming into today, last game of the series, teams are typically running low on pitching. And I think what was really cool is Chris got that early lead. He saw a pitch up and was able to get it out to left here today."

Hear from Head Coach Blake McFadden and senior Nico Bañez after Monday's win over Columbia!#GoBigGreen | #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/N8702bf8nC
— Dartmouth Baseball (@BigGreenBSB) March 30, 2026

Dartmouth added onto its lead in the third inning. Alejandro Puig led off the inning with a double, advancing to third thanks to a Nico Bañez sacrifice bunt. Taer Rodriguez then flew out to right, scoring Puig to make it a 3-0 game.

The Big Green added another run in the fifth. Bañez drew a walk with one out, advancing to second on a Rodriguez single through the left side. A.J. DeMastrie then ripped a ball down the third base line, scoring Bañez to extend his team's lead to four.

Dartmouth added one more run in the sixth, capitalizing on Lions' errors. Andersen reached after being hit by the pitch. Columbia tried to pick him off at first but the throw went into the outfield, allowing Andersen to advance to third. Puig then singled up the middle, making it a 5-0 game.

Nate Kugler and Mac Burke were dominant on the mound for the Big Green, allowing only two hits and six total baserunners through the nine innings.

Kugler got the start, giving up two hits in five innings of work. He fanned two batters.

Burke closed the game, striking out four and walking one in four scoreless and hitless innings.

McFadden was impressed with his staff's outing on the mound, Monday. "They did a good job of minimizing. They did a good job of getting ahead of hitters. I think on the weekend, we had seven or eight free bases. We preached that to our pitching staff," McFadden said. "We think we have some guys that have really good stuff, but sometimes we've given away some free outs, and today we did a good job of playing defense behind them and a good job of being ahead of all hitters."

The Big Green will now shift their focus, getting right back on the field for a nonconference game with the UMass Lowell Riverhawks on Tuesday, March 31.

Bañez, who finished the series with two hits, three runs scored, and two walks, said his team followed the game plan all weekend, contributing to the series victory.

""This is what we do during practice, execute our four on fours and when you come down to the 27 innings, we executed," Bañez said.

He says the focus for the Big Green going forward is to ride the highs. "Stick to our offensive philosophy, trusting coaches, trusting that we're in the right spot and play our game. It's a day-to-day sport," Bañez added.

His head coach agreed, saying Tuesday's midweek with the Riverhawks is just as important as the Ivy weekends as his team continues to build momentum.
"The biggest thing that we want to do is we want to continue momentum through UMass Lowell into Cornell," McFadden said. "As a team, we talk about short term goals. And so right now we got UMass Lowell in front of us, we want to play good baseball, be competitive and then that way we can take it on to Cornell up in Ithaca."

First pitch against the Riverhawks on Tuesday, March 31 is set for 4 p.m. You can watch the game here.

After Tuesday's game, Dartmouth will shift its focus back to Ancient Eight play, as the Big Green's next Ivy series will be this weekend in Ithaca against the Cornell Big Red.