The Dartmouth Baseball team's often-deafening bats fell silent this weekend in three non-league losses against Hartford and Northeastern.
Despite a team batting average over .300 heading into the weekend, Dartmouth knocked in only five runs in the three contests, dropping their overall record to 1-10.
"We weren't as aggressive at the plate as we needed to be this weekend. We took too many pitches and were just a little too tentative," second baseman Mike Armstrong '97 said.
Veteran left fielder Craig Pawling '96 voiced his concerns after the weekend series. "The biggest disappointment was that ... we had guys in scoring position but we couldn't bring them around," Pawling said. "Right now we seem to only have one thing or the other, either hitting or pitching, and not both at the same time. We just need to work on putting it all together."
Hartford 5, Dartmouth 2
Coming off an overpowering 16-0 silencing of Babson on Wednesday, the Big Green slipped into a coma on Saturday against the Hawks of Hartford.
Dartmouth lost 5-2 at the University of Hartford, managing only two hits on the day.
The Big Green scored their first run in the top of the fourth inning on a Brian Mosley '98 single, scoring Andrew Spencer '97. That run would tie the game at one until the last half of the inning, when a two-out rally capped by a two-run homer off the bat of Hartford's Brian Edge put the Hawks ahead for good.
Dartmouth closed the gap in the sixth inning with a Craig Pawling '96 single scoring Mosley, but Hartford's bullpen shut the door after that, holding the Big Green hitless through the final three innings.
Right-handed hurler Eric Walania '98 went six innings for the Big Green and took the loss, falling to 0-3 on the year. Dartmouth's defense, which has shown signs of shakiness at times in the young season, struggled with four errors in the afternoon.
Northeastern 4,7 Dartmouth 3,0
The slide continued for the Big Green on Sunday, as Dartmouth succumbed to the Huskies 4-3 and 7-0 in Boston.
In game one, Dartmouth rallied late in the game behind a pair of hits from its middle infield tandem, shortstop Mosley and second baseman Mike Armstrong '97.
Down 2-1 in the sixth inning, Mosley tied the game for the Big Green with a scorching run-scoring double. Armstrong followed, knocking in Mosley on a single to give Dartmouth the short-lived lead.
The Huskies roared back in the bottom of the sixth with two quick runs to spoil Dartmouth's comeback. Junior right-handed starter Scott Simon took the bitter loss after going the distance on the mound.
In the sixth inning of the finale, Northeastern, already up 3-0, hammered a grand slam homerun off starter Peter Sellers '98, putting the game out of reach of the Big Green for good.
Sellers took the loss, though he was not totally to blame. Dartmouth mustered only three hits against Northeastern pitchers in the second game. Left-handed hitter Pawling was the lone bright spot, accounting for two of the teams three hits in the contest.
The Big Green have one more non-league game at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell on Tuesday before their Ivy League schedule kicks off, with doubleheaders at Princeton and Cornell next weekend.
While its not time to worry yet, according to Pawling, Tuesday will be crucial for the Big Green to start building a winning attitude heading into the heart of the season.
"Its going to be big for our confidence on Tuesday to go out there and get a win, Pawling said. "We know our talent, we know the potential our team has. We've just got to go out there and do it."
