It wasn't the greatest of days to be playing ball. The skies were gray and a pesky drizzle had turned the field into a bog. But it's spring in Hanover, remember, and this is mudsville, so the guys in green should be used to it by now.
On the brighter side of things, it seems that the Dartmouth diamond-baggers are starting to get used to something far nicer than the weather -- that is, winning ballgames. And win they did out there, with a 6-1 shellacking of granite state neighbor New Hampshire College.
Granted, they were not playing against a team of hardball phenoms, but still, there was nothing sloppy about the green team out on Red Rolfe Field yesterday.
"Anytime you get a great pitching performance like we had today from Danny Godfrey ['98], you just have to put up a couple runs in order to win," co-Captain Greg Gilmer '96 said.
In his second start of the season, Godfrey kept the visiting team at bay, allowing only one run in seven innings and thus notching his first collegiate win.
"I ended up throwing mostly fastballs," Godfrey said. "Most of the batters were standing off the plate, and I didn't have much of a breaking ball today, so I guess the fastball was what worked for me."
But behind Godfrey's stellar fireballing from the mound, the Big Green came up with some equally phenomenal ballplaying in the field.
"Our defense really came together out there," Gilmer said. "We definitely played some good ball today. [Andrew] Spencer '97 was absolutely incredible in the outfield today. He went after some really deep shots that your average center fielders would have just given up on and let drop."
When the boys in the green and white pinstripes put down their gloves and picked up their bats, that spark and spunk from the field just kept sparking and spunking at the plate.
It was just one of those games that was predictable halfway into it. And really, after the fifth inning, that was all she wrote.
With Dartmouth playing defense and New Hampshire at bat, the top of fifth was settled in three short plays where the Big Green just seemed to click on all cylinders.
First the rightfielder closed in on a short fly to right and snagged it with a swooping bucket catch for the first out. Then shortstop Brian Mosley '98 scooped up a grounder and nailed the runner at first for the second out. For out number three, Godfrey gunned his fastballs towards the plate and caught his batter swinging for three strikes.
For the bottom of the fifth, Dartmouth had New Hampshire crying uncle after just four batters. Gilmer led the attack with a solid rip straight up the middle that skipped over second base and scooted into the outfield for a single.
Ron Friedman '99 followed with a blast to short that sent the New Hampshire shortstop diving and falling flat on his face. Gilmer advanced to third and Friedman found a spot on second. Then it was Spencer's turn.
Hungry for the potential RBI's out there, Spencer belted a deep fly out to center for a double that sent Gilmer and Friedman homeward bound.
Co-Captain Jake Isler '96 decided he liked what he saw from Spencer, and he pulled a little monkey see, monkey do deal. With Isler's mirror-image rocket to deep center, Spencer came in to put Dartmouth up by five.
At this point, New Hampshire started hoping for a miracle and decided to switch pitchers. Though this little change initially tempered the fifth inning onslaught, Dartmouth was already up for good.
At the top of the ninth, a nice little double play by the Big Green with one out and one man on base provided the perfect finale for a good ballgame. With one runner on first, the pitch was belted to Isler at third. Isler flipped it to Mike Armstrong '97 at second, who then relayed the ball to Jim Meyer '97 to send the New Hampshire guys packing.
"This win today meant a lot because it gave us back the momentum after dropping our last game to Yale," Gilmer said. "Right now, we're a team with confidence. We know we can win and we know we can do it."
"Doing it" would mean beating Harvard this weekend in the final four games of the regular season. As the tally sheets have it, Harvard is now perched atop the Red Rolfe Division standings with a 10-6-0 Ivy record. With huge wins over Yale last weekend, Dartmouth earned the second slot in the division, posting an 8-8-0 league record.
The team's win over New Hampshire College added to the Big Green's six of the last seven game win streak. The gloved pinstripers return to Red Rolfe Field on Thursday to take on Holy Cross at 3:00 PM.
