The Big Green came back in successive contests, winning 6-5 against Vermont on Tuesday and taking the victory against Yale in game one of the double-header, 8-5, on Wednesday before falling 13-9 to the Bulldogs in the nightcap.
The result of the double-header with Yale, rescheduled after it was originally postponed on Sunday morning due to rain, gives Dartmouth (17-16) an 11-5 Ivy League record in the Red Rolfe Division, one game behind first-place Harvard heading into the final weekend of league play. The Big Green could clinch the division outright with three wins against the Crimson in addition to Yale, (25-16, 10-6 Ivy) in the League, losing at least one game against Brown.
Head coach Bob Whalen acknowledged the importance of the upcoming Harvard series, but said that his players need to focus on winning one game at a time and not let the statistical scenarios enter into the game plan.
"That's why I always tell the team we always focus on ourselves. You can't think about two out of four or three out of four [wins in a series]. I want them immersed in the game," Whalen said.
"We have four games left," Jeff Wilkerson '07 added. "We are leaving everything on the field. If we didn't, we wouldn't be competitors."
Down by five runs after a grand slam by Catamount Kyle Brault in the fifth inning, Dartmouth waited until the very end to secure the victory against Vermont. With two outs in the ninth and the score knotted at 5-5, Andrew Nacario '07 hit a line drive single to right field with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run in dramatic fashion. Raymond Allen '09 also had a terrific day at the plate, going 4-for-4 while driving in the game-tying run.
The come-from-behind story did not change much in game one against Yale. A two-run homer off pitcher Wilkerson in the third helped to put the Big Green behind by four, but the squad rallied in the middle innings to break away from its Ancient Eight opponent.
With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Michael Pagliarulo '09 doubled with two on to score Bashelor, and Nacario came home on a wild pitch to Jason Blydell '08 to cut the score to 5-3.
Johnathon Santopadre '09 led off the fifth inning with a perfect bunt down the left foul line, and Allen was hit by a pitch with no outs, allowing Bashelor to rip a shot to deep right for a one-run double. Bashelor advance to third on a RBI-single by David Wright '08 and then scored the go-ahead run on the next at-bat off a double-play grounder.
Wilkerson was effective in the latter part of the game, pitching two scoreless innings before being replaced by Russell Young '08 in the seventh, who recorded his first save of the season. Wilkerson improved to 2-2 on the season with the win.
"I just forced myself to settle down and not try to do too much," Wilkerson said. "I focused on pitching the way I know I can. I needed to shut them down so that our bats had a chance to catch up."
The Big Green could not duplicate its late-game heroics in the nightcap against the Bulldogs. Another two-run homerun by Yale's Marc Sawyer helped the Bulldogs to jump out to an early lead. While Dartmouth was able to get on the scoreboard on a bases-loaded walk after Nacario was hit by a pitch, the Bulldogs exploded for ten runs from the fourth to sixth inning to open the gap to 13-1 and held off a late Dartmouth rally to leave Red Rolfe Field with the win.
Chase Carpenter '08 took the loss to fall to 3-3, lasting three innings while yielding nine runs, seven earned, off 11 hits with three strikeouts.
Whalen said that there is not one thing that he can easily fix to kick start the Dartmouth offense, but rather it will come down to knowing the opponent's tendencies and focusing on the little things.
"When you're in a four game series," Whalen said, referring to the upcoming Harvard series, "there's more familiarity with [the other] club. By the second day, you have a much better idea of how to attack their pitchers. I don't know if [offensive] adjustments are the order of the day. We're focusing on quality at-bats."
The Big Green plays a home-home format against Harvard this weekend, playing in Cambridge on Saturday before returning to Hanover on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for noon on both days.
