Dartmouth (21-13, 12-4 Ivy) tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Big Green traded runs with the Catamounts (17-14, 4-4 America East) in the 10th inning, and held UVM scoreless in the 11th and 12th innings before Wren's RBI single.
"I don't know if you can practice this or script it," head coach Bob Whalen said. "You hope you don't go extras too often, particularly bunched around each other."
Dartmouth battled Yale (19-20, 9-6 Ivy) in two extra-inning contests this past weekend, and played a total of ten extra innings over the three extended games.
Ryan Smith '11, who worked four innings in relief, took home his first win of the season against Vermont. Smith, who leads the team in saves with six, gave up one run on two hits, walking one and striking out four.
Junior Nate Matusick took the loss for Vermont, his first of the year. He entered the game in the12th inning and got two outs before surrendering Wren's walk-off hit.
"The midweek games are really hard to go extras, because everyone is thin on pitching," Whalen said.
The Catamounts moved their starting shortstop, freshman Matt Duffy, to the mound in the ninth inning, where he gave up the game-tying runs.
A wild pitch by Duffy in that inning allowed Wren to score and set up a sacrifice fly by Johnathon Santopadre '09 that sent the game into extra innings. Both runs were charged to freshman Owen Ozanich, who was pulled from the game before the ninth inning.
Duffy put the Catamounts in the lead again in the 10th inning. He led off with a double to right field, then came around to score on an error by Smith, who threw the ball past first base into right field when Vermont attempted a sacrifice bunt.
Damon Wright '08 extended the game with a one-out triple to right-center, bringing home Michael Pagliarulo '09. Wright leads the team in runs batted in with 35 on the year.
After both teams went 1-2-3 in the 11th, Vermont threatened in the 12th, putting two men on with one out. Smith induced a fly ball and a ground ball out to escape the jam, setting up the Dartmouth victory.
In an interview following the game, Whalen said that the extra-innings win does not change his outlook going into the Big Green's last conference series against Harvard (8-27, 7-9 Ivy) this weekend.
"I don't think they're related, I really don't," he said. "What is related is when you find ways to win you always feel better about yourself when you get in close games, and that's really what's important."
Dartmouth faces the Crimson in the teams' traditional home-and-home series played the last weekend of every season.
The Dartmouth-Harvard series often determines the winner of the Red Rolfe Division, and this year will be no exception. With Yale just 2.5 games behind the Big Green, Dartmouth needs three wins to clinch the division. Anything less than three victories could allow Yale to force a tie or win the division outright.
If Dartmouth splits the series with Harvard, and Yale wins all four of its weekend games against Brown (14-23, 5-11 Ivy) and its suspended game against Penn (15-18, 6-9 Ivy), then the Big Green and the Bulldogs would finish with identical conference records.
The last time the final series between Dartmouth and Harvard was this crucial was in 2006. The division title came down to the final game between the two teams. Harvard pulled out a 23-9 victory, breaking a 9-9 tie in the eighth inning to win the game and the division title.
This season, the Red Rolfe Division title is Dartmouth's to win. The Big Green will try to shore up its first divisional crown since 2004 on Saturday in Cambridge, Mass., with a doubleheader at Harvard before the series moves to Hanover on Sunday.
