The Dartmouth baseball team, behind the strong pitching of freshman left-hander Jordan Glaser cruised on to defeat New Hampshire College, 9-1. The team improve their record to 19-11 overall.
Glaser had trouble in the first inning when he allowed three hits and a run. But he meandered his way out of the inning leaving three runners on base. Then the freshman slowly settled in by speeding up his pace and keeping New Hampshire batters off-balance.
"The key for me was picking up the pace and speeding up my delivery which got the infield into the game too," Glaser said.
He would face no more than four batters in each of the next six innings, going on to fan seven batters in seven innings before yielding to Bryn Alderson '03.
Alderson also kept the New Hampshire bats silent, retiring the side in order in the eighth and ninth frames for his second relief appearance alongside classmate Glaser.
"What we're trying to do is have our pitchers be more aggressive on the mound; throwing strikes, learning to pitch off their fastball and getting outs early in the count," Head Coach Bob Whalen said.
And Glaser did just that. After leaving a lot of balls up high in the first inning, he began to gain great control of his hard fastball in subsequent innings. Keeping batters off-balance with his fast-paced style on the mound, Glaser also used his slider very effectively to get batters out.
The explosive Dartmouth offense had 16 hits off Penmen pitchers.
"Today gave our batters experience learning to adjust and stay back on the ball," Whalen said, as the weak Penmen pitchers threw a lot of off-speed pitches out of the zone.
Despite having a hard time finding pitches to hit, Joe Rockers '01, while also playing clean defense at second base yesterday went 3-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI out of the two spot in the order.
Jason DaCosta '03, starting in left and batting first also had two RBIs and two hits, as did James "Game Day" Little '00. Centerfielder Little was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs to add to his terrific range in the outfield.
The Big Green's defense was solid, as the team left the game without a single error. This will be the key to a solid all around ball club as Dartmouth looks towards the Ivy Playoffs.
"Even when our defense is bad [as it was in the Brown series] we can battle back," Little said.
This ability to play as a team and back each other up that has Dartmouth winning nine of its last ten and six straight.
"We've been taking a team approach, while batting at the plate, getting runs from scoring position- everybody's playing to help the team win," senior captain Brian Nickerson said.
As Dartmouth rounds out the Ivy season with only two more weeks to play, they will be looking to perform well against Yale in four-game home stand on Friday and Saturday.
Although Yale began the Ivy season 0-8, they recently defeated No. 2 Harvard twice in four games and they showed that they're not to be brushed aside.
"If we go into this weekend like we have been, we'll be fine," said ace Conor Brooks '00, who is expected to start in the second game against Yale on Friday afternoon.
Today, the Big Green will face Plymouth State away before returning home for the four Yale games. They will take each game one at a time, but with the imminent Harvard series and the hope for a playoff berth in the back of their minds.
Dartmouth currently sits atop the Ivies, one game ahead Harvard at 10-2 The Big Green have also moved into second place in the New England Division I coaches' poll.
