The Dartmouth baseball team traveled down to Quinnipiac yesterday to record a mid-week win in what should have been their first home game. The Big Green pounded out 10 runs, including a six-run second inning to defeat the Braves by a final of 10-3 and improve to 6-9 overall.
Mike Levy '01 had a big day at the plate, going 4 for 5 with a three-run homerun and four RBIs. Freshman sensation Scott Shirrell kept his hot bat alive adding two hits along with centerfielder Jason Dacosta '03. Stalwart Brian Nickerson '00 ripped a double to gather two RBIs.
Chris Miranda '01 also contributed three hits, scoring two runs from the lead-off spot in the Big Green's 14-hit day.
One of the few Big Green players who had an off day was defending Ivy League Rookie of the Year Mike Mileusenic '03. Mileusenic went 0-4, though he did pick up an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
Miranda warned however that this wasn't an Ivy caliber opponent, "Its not indicative of how we'll perform; we can't get too high after this game," he said.
This could have been the problem Dartmouth faced in Sunday's loss to Columbia when the team dropped two 6-3 contests behind less than stellar play.
"Its about us taking our approach as hitters, staying with ourselves, doing the little things right like moving the runners -- and working on getting it right all the time," Miranda added.
Up 8-1 after two innings, Dartmouth turned control of their fortunes over to their pitching staff which has had an up and down spring thus far.
Dartmouth's starter, hurler Kevan Graves '03, improved his record to 2-1 with a five-inning effort. Graves allowed three runs, all earned, and scattered six hits while striking out three.
Though marking the plate was troublesome at times for the Dartmouth staff, relievers Mike Brown '02 and Pat Dowling '04 split the sixth and seventh innings while David Lopez '03 and Bryn Alderson '03 each threw an inning of work to close out the game. The bullpen scattered three hits while striking out four over four innings of work.
For Quinnipiac, the lone bright spot in their 12th straight loss of the season was Albert Marano, who picked up three hits including a double.
Solidifying the team's play early in the season, maintaining consistent offense and perfect defense, as they did in the Quinnipiac game,will be the keys for Dartmouth to have a successful Ivy weekend.
The squad looks forward to facing Princeton and Cornell in games whose site location has been changed from Hanover to Quinnipiac.
