Dartmouth starter Kyle Hendricks '12 pitched a scoreless seven and one-third innings in a 10-0 shutout Sunday against Cornell to lead Dartmouth to its first Ivy League baseball championship since 1987.
Dartmouth (25-15, 16-4 Ivy) took the third and deciding game from the Big Red (17-23, 10-10 Ivy) after Saturday's shattering 14-12 afternoon loss and 8-6 come-from-behind win in Hanover.
"It's incredible," Johnathon Santopadre '09 said after Sunday's win. "It hasn't even settled in yet. It's something that we feel great about right now, but it's so fresh. We were joking that we weren't going to give them a six-run lead today. We didn't want to think about old things. We didn't want to think about yesterday."
Hendricks dominated the Big Red, throwing 141 pitches, striking out nine batters and giving up eight hits.
"The story begins and ends with Kyle Hendricks," head coach Bob Whalen said after the game. "For him, as a first-year player, to be able to go out and shut the other team out into the eighth inning in a game of this magnitude is really quite special."
Santopadre blasted a three-run bomb to left field in the fourth inning to put the Big Green up 6-0. Jake Carlson '12 had reached base on an error and Kyle Evans '09 had been granted first after being hit by Pappel.
"A three-run homer when it's a three-run game -- that's a huge part of the day right there," Whalen said.
In the bottom of the sixth, Santopadre struck again with a solo homer over to left to score Dartmouth's ninth run. Both Santopadre and Jim Wren '10 drove in four runs each.
Big Green reliever Dan Ternowchek '11 and closer Ryan Smith '11 combined to get the last five outs and secure the victory.
Dartmouth jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. Big Red starter Corey Pappel struck out six Big Green sluggers, but also gave up eight runs off of eight hits in his five-inning outing.
"I just have to give Cornell tons of credit, especially with a first-year coach," Whalen said. "We did not underestimate them at all. They were significantly improved from when we played them earlier in the year."
Scoring a total of twenty runs Saturday, the Dartmouth baseball team went 1-1 in the first day of the championship series.
After fighting back in the first game with an explosive seven-run fifth inning to win 8-6, the Big Green then lost a grueling second game to the Big Red, 14-12.
With a 12-10 lead entering into the seventh inning of the second game, closer Smith gave up a deflating three-run home run that hit the top of the centerfield fence.
Before blowing the lead in the seventh, the Big Green had an uphill battle against an early 7-1 deficit. The Dartmouth offense cranked out nine hits during the fifth and sixth innings to score nine runs. Two costly errors committed by Cornell also helped the Big Green mount a comeback.
The game marked the only game out of 14 this season that the Big Green has lost after scoring at least 10 runs.
Ben Murray '10, who now has an ERA of 5.36, started the nightcap for Dartmouth, but was pulled from the game in the fifth inning, but not before giving up 10 earned runs off of 12 hits, including three doubles and three home runs.
"He was more susceptible to the long ball," head coach Bob Whalen said about Murray. "Among the starters, he gives up the least extra base hits, but not today."
Dartmouth never recovered from the seventh-inning Big Red homer, as a late ninth-inning rally attempt fell short when Nick Santomauro '10 struck out looking for the last out of the game. Jeff Onstott '11 was left stranded on first base.
The Big Green stranded nine men on base in both games on Saturday. The Big Red pitchers combined for a total of eight wild pitches during the two games.
In the first game, an RBI triple soaring off of the bat of Joe Sclafani '12 in the fifth inning finally put the Big Green on the scoreboard after a four-run inning from the Big Red. Later in the fifth, with two outs and the bases loaded, Evans drilled the winning single to left field to put Dartmouth up 7-6.
Big Green starting pitcher Robert Young '10 gave up six earned runs in seven and two-thirds innings off of ten hits. He threw 112 pitches and struck out four Big Red sluggers in the win, now posting a season ERA of 5.26.
"They are a good hitting team, and our mentality is to get ahead with the fastball," Young said. "I was doing that in the beginning, but I wasn't getting to the bottom of the zone and they were getting the barrel on it. Finally, I found my curveball, and was able to throw that for a strike, so they had another pitch they had to look for."
The combination of both victories this weekend advances Dartmouth to the NCAA Division I baseball championship tournament. The first regional round will take place between May 29 and June 1.
The long journey to winning the two-day Ivy League championship began with a shaky start months ago for the members of the Dartmouth baseball team.
The Big Green's season started with an eight-game losing streak, which was finally broken by a 7-4 victory against San Jose State in San Jose, Calif., on March 24.
This first victory came towards the end of an extended eight-game road trip to California during which the Big Green went 1-7, scoring 37 total runs in all eight games.
Dartmouth then turned the season around, sweeping the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia in the first weekend of Ivy League play and outscoring its two opponents 36-19 -- almost scoring in four games what the team had manufactured in eight during the road trip.
Embarking on a 13-game winning streak starting with this first weekend of Ivy play, the Big Green was undefeated in the Ivy League until losing 12-9 to Brown in the last contest of a four-game series on April 12.
"We started out 0-8," Sclafani said. "It wasn't a great start, but we played some good teams over in California. I think playing those tough teams early really helped us, because once we got back to the East Coast, we went on a really good run."
Dartmouth went on to clinch the Red Rolfe Division title after splitting a four-game series against Harvard last weekend, earning a bid to the Ivy Championship against Cornell. After losing to Columbia last year in a third-game collapse in the Ivy League championship series, Dartmouth has won the Ivy crown for the first time since 1987.
"I'm proud of my players," Whalen said after winning Sunday. "I have been very close with this group of seniors and this particular team. I am so happy for them after getting to game three last year and coming up short."
Under Whalen, Dartmouth has made it to the championships five times, but was previously unsuccessful with a 0-4 record. This is Whalen's first time winning the title.
"Very honestly, I always knew this day would come," Whalen said. "You hope it would come a little bit sooner, but what is important at the end of the day is the relationships you have with the guys you work with."
Only shut out three times this season in three non-conference games against San Jose, 19-0, Santa Clara, 3-0, and Boston College, 3-0, the Big Green has outscored its opponents 314-261 during the regular season.
"This has been a very resilient team," Whalen said. "We have only lost back-to-back games once."
Starting pitcher Hendricks threw Dartmouth's first shutout in a complete-game 7-0 victory against Columbia in March. The only other shutout was the third game of the Ivy League Championship this Sunday, in which Hendricks pitched seven and one-third innings.
Dartmouth led the Ivy League in team batting with a composite batting average of .312. Penn was second with .310. The Big Green pitching staff, meanwhile, was ranked third in the Ivy League in ERA with an average of 5.98, trailing Princeton's 4.94 and Cornell with 5.92.
Santomauro was consistently at the head of the Ivy League in batting and ended the season with a batting average of .378. Trailing only Brian Billigen of Cornell, who had an average of .404. Santomauro also leads the league in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
Sclafani, a freshman who has started all season at shortstop and batted lead-off, finished fifth in the Ivy League with a batting average of .366 this season. Sclafani and Onstott led the league in triples with five and four each, respectively.
Smith saved ten games for the Big Green this season, beating the record he set last year of seven saves.
The team will soon be saying goodbye to co-captain Jack Monahan '09, designated hitter Ray Allen '09, Mike Pagliarulo '09, Evans and Santopadre.
Various freshmen, however, have played a pivotal role in Dartmouth's success this season, including Sclafani, Hendricks, and Carlson.
Sclafani was awarded Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice and Ivy League Player of the Week once during the season. Hendricks was also recognized as Pitcher of the Week in the beginning of April.
Dartmouth ended the season with a 23-14 record and earned 16 wins against Ivy League teams before winning the championship.
"I'm so happy for the older guys since last year they came out on Cornell's side in the third game," Sclafani said. "We have to live up to some big expectations next year."
