The Dartmouth men's baseball team split with Yale on Saturday afternoon, winning game one of the doubleheader, 6-4, before losing a 2-1 heartbreaker in a twelve inning marathon during the nightcap. Sunday's contests were postponed due to rain, with no makeup date scheduled.
Asked if the delay would have any detrimental effects on the team's momentum, co-captain Josh Faiola '06 said, "I don't think it screws up our momentum too much. The worst part about it is that it screws up our pitching rotation and somebody's going to be starting on short rest."
The Big Green, now 15-15 overall, went into a must-win situation this weekend against the Bulldogs. Only one game separated the four teams from first place in the Red Rofle Division coming into Saturday's contests, with Harvard and Dartmouth sporting identical 9-3 Ivy records while Yale and Brown each trailing with 8-4 marks in league play.
The split with Yale, coupled with Harvard's sweep of Brown, shook up the standings and dropped the Big Green out of first place, giving the team sole possession of second place in the division with a 10-4 Ivy League record. The Bears fall to 9-5 in the conference.
Game one started out quietly, but Yale was eventually able to score in the fifth inning off of a string of three consecutive singles with two outs off of starter Russell Young '08 to lead, 1-0.
The Big Green responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame. Andrew Nacario '07 stole second base with two outs and Kyle Cavanaugh '09, in to pinch hit for catcher Jack Monahan '09, hit an RBI-single through the left side to bring the junior designated-hitter home. Cavanaugh scored just one batter later on Erik Bell's '08 double to right center.
Nacario headlined a productive sixth inning for Dartmouth. He accounted for three of the four Big Green runs in the frame, driving home Tommy Myette '06 and Will Bashelor '07 and scoring from third on a wild pitch to extend the lead, 6-1.
It seemed that Yale might duplicate Holy Cross' comeback and hand Dartmouth a devastating loss, but the Bulldogs could only muster three runs in the seventh against the combined efforts of Young and Jeff Wilkerson '07, who picked up his first save of the season. Young improved to 3-2 on the year with the win.
Faiola continued his hot streak on the mound in the nightcap despite earning the loss, pitching all twelve innings with two runs, one earned, and seven hits yielded with only one walk and four strikeouts.
"I didn't feel like I had my best stuff, he said. "I completely lost my slider from the third to the fifth, but was fortunate enough to make the adjustment and get it back for the rest of the game."
Yale narrowly scored third inning to take a 1-0 lead. After a hit batter by Faiola and an error by Bell helped load the bases with one out, Bulldog Marc Sawyer hit a fly ball to center that was caught by Bashelor for the second out. Bashelor then threw a rope to third to get the runner coming from second to record the final out, but Dan Soltman had crossed home plate before the tag to score the run.
David Wright connected for an RBI-single in the fourth to knot the score, driving home Bashelor after he got his team-high 13th stolen base.
The teams played for seven scoreless innings, but finally Yale broke the deadlock in the top of the 12th. John Jancro tallied the decisive run, coming from third after moving from first base off of a sacrifice bunt and in infield ground out to score an RBI single by teammate Jake Doyle. Dartmouth had an opportunity to take the win in the bottom of the ninth with runners on the corners, but Cavanaugh struck out looking with two outs.
The Big Green goes into the final games of its Ivy League campaign in charge of its own destiny, providing a bit of relief to Faiola and the rest of the team during this pressure-packed race for the division crown.
"Nothing is worse than playing your games and then sitting at the computer waiting to see if your season's over or not," Faiola said. "We need to win these next two games against Yale so we can keep pace with Harvard and hopefully Brown will pick us up and at least take one from Harvard. Regardless of what happens the next six games, especially the series with Harvard, is going to be exciting."
Dartmouth plays non-conference opponent Vermont at Red Rolfe Field on Tuesday, with the first pitch at 3 p.m.
