This week, I sat down with Nick Lombardi '15, the third baseman on the Dartmouth baseball team, to discuss the team's season and his transition to college baseball.
The team swept Yale University this weekend, winning all four games, and now has an 11-5 Ivy record. How's the rest of the season looking?
NL: We've been doing well as of late. Sweeping Yale this weekend was huge. Now, if we beat Harvard in one of our four games against them next weekend, we win the Red Rolfe division and clinch a spot in the Ivy championship. We started the season alright, but we've really hit our stride lately.
The team had doubleheaders on both Friday and Saturday. What are the challenges of playing that many games in such a short time?
NL: The back-to-back doubleheaders definitely take a toll on your body, especially your arm. It's a long throw across from third base and doing that for four games definitely leads to some fatigue. In high school, I never played that many innings in such a short time span, so it's definitely different. We've worked really hard since the fall with conditioning in order to have an advantage in these doubleheaders. Our goal is always to win the fourth game. That's our game.
You grew up in the baseball hotbed of Southern California. What are some of the differences between baseball in California and here, and what made you decide to come across the country?
NL: Honestly, there isn't too much difference because there's a lot of good competition in both California and the Northeast. You can train year-round in SoCal, but we make due here and hit inside in the winter. I decided to come here because of the guys on the team. We're a real tight-knit team and I think that gives us an upper hand on the other Ivy teams. In baseball, you rely on your teammates on the field, and we rely on each other both on and off the field. If you can rely on your teammates off the field, you play together as a unit on the field.
What are some of the challenges of transitioning from high school to college ball?
NL: The biggest difference is that you travel a lot more. Travelling is a big part of college baseball that you just don't get in high school. College ball is also just at a higher level and each game is more important. There are more people in the stands, and more is at stake. When we played LSU, there were probably 5,000 people in the stands. It was the biggest stage I've ever played in front of, and you have to step it up and thrive.
On the team's spring break trip to California, you guys lost a lot of close games. What's changed since and led to your success?
NL: I think our close losses on spring break helped us a lot. We were on the short end of some tough games, but it revealed a lot about us and what we needed to do to win those close games. Since then, we've done that and pulled out some close victories. The spring break trip put us up against some of the toughest teams in the country, and to have that experience before coming back for some of our most important Ivy games definitely helped.
Most of the baseball team plays summer ball somewhere. Where will you be taking your talents this summer?
NL: I'm playing for a team called the Paints in Ohio. It's a team that David Turnbull ['12] and Mitch Horacek ['14] played for during the previous summer. It goes from the beginning of June to the end of July, and you play about 60 games in that time, so it's a lot of baseball.
It really helps to keep your game sharp in the offseason. In summer league, we use wood bats, so when we go back to metal bats for college games, there's a lot more pop. I think it'll be a really fun experience playing baseball, living with a host family. It'll be different, and I'm looking forward to it.