The Big Green lost a heartbreaker to the Quakers in the first game, 8-7, before winning the nightcap 6-2. The victories put Dartmouth (10-11, 6-2 Ivy) one game behind first-place Harvard in the Red Rolfe Division.
Down 4-1 to the Quakers (9-21, 4-8 Ivy) in the first game, the Big Green broke out for a three-hit, five-run fourth inning, aided by two walks and three batters who were hit by balls. Tommy Myette '06 hit his first home run of the season with a solo shot to right field with one out, and Kyle Cavanaugh '09 and Will Bashelor '07 both hit singles that each drove in two runs to put Dartmouth ahead, 6-4.
The Quakers knotted the score in the fifth, but the Big Green could not regain the lead despite a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the sixth inning. Quaker reliever Doug Brown pitched out of the jam with two straight ground balls in the infield.
Kyle Zeis '08 took the loss for Dartmouth, giving up two runs in the seventh inning to relinquish the lead. The Big Green scored one run in the bottom of the frame, but Johnathon Santopadre '09 lined out to left field with a runner on third to end the game.
When asked about the effect of going into the second game of a doubleheader after a tough loss, head coach Bob Whalen answered, "We practice with that not being a factor. You've got to let it go."
"This is the youngest team I've had at Dartmouth," he said, adding that the emotions that come with losing usually cloud the minds of younger, more inexperienced players the most.
It did not take long for Penn to give the Big Green some worries in the nightcap. Quaker third baseman Alex Nwaka took the first pitch of the game from Chase Carpenter '08 and crushed it over the trees past the left field fence for a leadoff solo home run. Carpenter retired the next three batters and went on to finish the afternoon with the win, going eight-plus innings with two runs off ten hits, one walk and three strikeouts.
The Big Green men helped their pitcher with strong hitting and good defense. Wright hit a two-run shot in the second inning with Jason Blydell '08 and Will Bashelor '07 on second and third before being tagged out at second, and Santopadre hit a clutch two-out single in the second to give the Big Green the lead, 4-1.
Penn had two bases-loaded opportunities later in the contest but failed in each instance to take the lead. In the fifth, Myette took a throw from Andrew Nacario '07 in left field and fired it to Monahan at home, beating the second Penn base runner to limit the play to a RBI single. In the ninth, Zeis gave up a walk with two outs to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, but forced Josh Corn to ground out to Erik Bell.
Against Columbia (7-23, 4-8), the Big Green rode two complete game performances by Russell Young '08 and Josh Faiola '06 to take the afternoon sweep.
Young earned his second victory on the season with the complete game shutout and yielded just five hits to the Lions while striking out four in the first contest. Faiola picked up his fourth win with six strikeouts in the nightcap. Columbia pitcher Bill Purdy started both games for the Lions.
Whalen said the effort by his starters was effective, putting the pressure on the opposing offenses to play sharp.
"Our thing is to always to try to be good on the mound and force them to beat us with their bats," he said.
Down 2-1 going into the fourth inning of game two, the Big Green erupted on an offensive explosion in the subsequent frames to run away from the Lions.
Myette singled into the gap in centerfield to bring home Wright from second to knot the score, and the third basemen scored by beating a throw from the cutoff man on a head-first slide into home after a deep double into the right field by Nacario.
Dartmouth continued to roll in the fifth inning, pouring on four more runs in the frame to go up 8-2. Wright hit an RBI single and scored one batter later when Myette took the first pitch he saw to the warning track. Two batters later, Monahan connected for a two-run double into right.
The Big Green scored three more in the final two innings to seal the win. Michael Pagliarulo '09 spearheaded the late-inning surge with a run and an RBI double.
Dartmouth returns to action against Quinnipiac at Red Rolfe Field on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
