The Big Green baseball team clinched a tie for first place in the Red Rolfe division of the Ivy League on Wednesday with a 14-2 drubbing of Holy Cross coupled with Harvard's 4-2 loss to Yale.
Dartmouth also broke a team record by winning its 25th game of the season in the rain, upping its record to 25-11. The team has gone 18-3 since spring break.
Harvard will now have to win all six of its remaining Ivy League games to tie Dartmouth and force a one-game playoff with the Big Green.
Dartmouth had a 7-0 lead after two innings, and it was smooth sailing from there on in, as they would tack on three runs in the fifth and three in the seventh, and one in the eighth.
Leadoff hitter Chris Miranda '01 led the way for Dartmouth with four hits in five at bats. He also walked, scored two runs and had two RBI.
In addition to Miranda, Yale Dieckmann '00 played exceptionally well with two hits, a walk, and his third home run of the season. All three of his long shots have been hit within the last week.
The hitting onslaught began for Dartmouth when Crusader starter Mike Kerns walked his first two batters and hit the third to load the bases. He then struck out Brian Nickerson '00, and he gave up a single to Mike Mileusnic '03 which scored two runs.
Dartmouth pitcher Brian Gattis '03 threw for six and two-thirds innings, relinquishing six hits and two runs to earn his second win of the year.
His counterpart, Mike Kerns, was hit hard by Dartmouth, giving up 10 earned runs in five innings while striking out four.
For Holy Cross, Matt Reiland had a pair of base knocks from the leadoff slot, and Peter Summa went 2-for-4 as well.
Third baseman Nickerson was the Ivy League player of the week last week and Mileusnic was named rookie of the week.
Nickerson leads the team in batting with a .388 average, slugging percentage (.653), on-base percentage (.455) and home runs (eight).
Mileusnic is now batting .358. During the week, Mileusnic had multiple hits in four out of six games.
In addition, pitcher Jim Kelly '03 made the Ivy League Honor Roll for improving to a 4-2 record with a shutout against Yale.
The Big Green will travel to Cambridge on Saturday for the first of two home-home doubleheaders this weekend against Harvard.
