Baseball's oldest adage is that pitching and defense win championships, and Dartmouth has certainly proved that they have plenty of both -- winning several close well pitched contests over the course of the last week.
But yesterday afternoon against St. Anselm's, the Big Green decided to go to work at the plate, and that's exactly what they did as they piled up the runs in an impressive 17-4 victory.
Dartmouth's offensive attack got underway in the first inning when James Little '00 tripled to deep left-center. He was sent home by the very next batter, captain Andrew Spencer '97, when he hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Big Green gave themselves a little breathing room in the second inning when they added three more runs. Ron Friedman '99 started things off when he beat out a bouncer to second for an infield single.
Designated hitter Nick Ratliff '99 stepped up to the plate next and slapped a triple down the rightfield line to score Friedman. Catcher Eric Anderson '99 followed with a grounder to the right side of the infield that scored Ratliff.
Even with two outs Dartmouth still was not done. Second baseman Ryan Coyne '00 singled and stole second to put himself in scoring position. Mike Conway '99 knocked a single up the middle to bring home Coyne and stretch the lead to 4-0.
The Big Green added two more runs in each of the next two innings to stretch the lead to 8-1, but oddly enough the real magic wasn't delivered until the bottom of the sixth.
With two outs and nobody on, Spencer laced a seemingly harmless single to the right, but this was only the beginning. First baseman Aaron Meyer '00 stepped up to the plate and smacked a towering blast off the left-centerfield fence for a double, bringing in Spencer.
Brian Nickerson '00 joined in the action by doubling home Meyer with his own double to left-center. After Friedman drew a walk, Ratliff stepped up and knocked home both of the runners with yet another double.
Eric Anderson capped the scoring in the sixth by driving in Ratliff with a line-drive single up the middle, making the lead 13-1.
The fortunate recipient of all this run support was starter Jon Aljancic '97 who was equally impressive on the mound. Aljancic's fastball was overpowering as he kept St. Anselm's batters waving at pitch after pitch all afternoon.
Meyer hit 4-for-5 and tied the school record with 6 RBIs on the afternoon. Nickerson was 3-for-5 with two doubles, one run and an RBI while Spencer socked 2-for-4 with four runs.
