The Yale Bulldogs did a little house-cleaning in the Ivy League's Red Rolfe Division this weekend as they swept the Big Green in four games in back-to-back Saturday-Sunday double-headers in New Haven.
The losses dropped Dartmouth to 20-12 (11-5 Ivy) and forced a flip-flop of the Big Green and the Bulldogs in the division standings.
While Dartmouth led the Red Rolfe division going into the weekend, Yale will start off the new week in front of Dartmouth with a 12-4 league record. Harvard (12-2 Ivy) will be on top of the Red Rolfe.
On Saturday, the Bulldogs set the pace with a 2-1 victory compliments of a homer in the first and a Dartmouth fielding error in the second.
While senior co-Captain Scott Simon struggled from the hill for the Big Green in the first game, the Dartmouth offense couldn't put up the numbers either. The Big Green managed only one hit in the opening game.
The only Dartmouth run came in the sixth inning when Eric Anderson '99 five-holed Yale second baseman Tommy Kidwell with a grounder to send Ron Friedman '99 across the plate.
In the second game, the Bulldogs knocked in all seven runs in the first two innings to put the Big Green in a deep hole right off the start.
Dartmouth rallied with two runs in the third and three more in the fifth, but couldn't cut the deficit any further.
Reliever Matt Tarver-Wahlquist '98 was solid on the mound as he only allowed one hit over four innings. On offense, Mike Conway '99 led the Big Green, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while senior co-Captain Andrew Spencer set the school record of 110 career hits as he went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI.
Aaron Meyer '00 had a pair of RBIs on two sacrifice flies as he became the single-season record-holder in that category with 39.
On Sunday, Yale continued to dominate as they took another double-header sweep, winning 8-5 and 8-4.
The Bulldogs took an early 4-1 lead in game one as Eric Walania '98 gave up five earned runs in the first one and one-third innings. Dartmouth tied the game at the top of the third as Meyer and Brian Nickerson '00 each found their way home to score runs four and five.
But the Bulldogs tacked on the game-winner in the fourth before sending in two more in the fifth.
In the final game of the weekend, Dartmouth carried a 3-0 lead through the fourth inning before Yale knocked in four runs in the fifth. The Big Green evened the score at four when Jimmy Meyer '97 socked a single to send James Little across the plate.
Yale cemented the lead with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.
The four-game sweep puts the Big Green in a precarious position. If Dartmouth wants any chance at winning the league pennant, the team will have to win all four games against Harvard this weekend and hope that Yale drops at least one game to Brown.
