Dartmouth baseball swept Cornell in a three-game series from April 25 to April 27 — improving to 8-10 in Ivy League play. Impressive starting performances from Eddie Albert ’26, Nate Isler ’27 and Bryce Loeger ’28 held Cornell to just nine total runs in the series.
Dartmouth is firmly in contention for the fourth and final spot in the tournament. Harvard and Princeton are both currently 8-12 and will face each other on May 7 to make up a postponed game.
Dartmouth will play Yale in its final three-game series of the regular season. If Princeton beats Harvard on May 7, the Big Green will need to take two out of three games from Yale to qualify. If Harvard wins, the Big Green will only need to win once. The Bulldogs will be looking to sweep, however, as three wins guarantees them home-field advantage in the tournament.
Game one of the Cornell series kicked off on April 25 at Biondi Park in Hanover. Isler started on the mound for the Big Green, posting four scoreless innings before a fielder’s choice gave Cornell a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning.
Jackson Hower ’25 quickly answered with his first home run of the year — a two-run blast that put Dartmouth back on top. In the bottom of the eighth inning, with Dartmouth down 3-2, Camden Rush ’27 drove in two runs with a line drive up the middle.
Isler’s eight punchouts through six innings were a season high for the star pitcher.
“I wanted to make sure I was in attack mode from the start of the game,” Isler said.
Albert followed a similar trajectory when he took the mound in game two. A solo home run to left field in the fourth inning was the only run allowed in his seven innings pitched. With eleven strikeouts and just three hits allowed, Albert led the Big Green to a 3-2 win. Rush and Hower stayed hot with two knocks apiece, and a sacrifice fly from Taer Rodriguez ’26 put Dartmouth ahead in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“Executing two strike pitches was an important part of my outing last weekend,” Albert said.
He added that going at hitters with an aggressive approach “allowed [him] to keep them off balance.”
Albert’s impressive performance earned him Richards Group Athletes of the Week honors.
The series finale began with an early push from the Dartmouth offense. Ethan Brown ’27 hit a two RBI double to finish off a six-run second inning, putting the Big Green up big from the start. Bryce Loeger ’28 started on the mound, pitching five innings and allowing just one earned run. Cornell made a late ninth inning push, hitting two home runs to cut the lead to three, but Dartmouth ultimately pulled out the 7-4 victory and completed the series sweep.
“Getting the series sweep against Cornell last weekend was really big for us,” A.J. DeMastrie ’27 said. “[We] put ourselves in a great position for the Ivy tournament and have good momentum to build off of for Yale.”
A midweek game against Merrimack College was not as successful for the Big Green, who fell 5-6 to the Warriors on a walk-off single.
The team is set to take on Stonehill College in Hanover on Wednesday. With just three conference games left to play, the Big Green are fighting to stay ahead of Harvard and earn a spot in the Ivy League tournament. Their final conference series of the year begins this Saturday versus Yale.
“Yale is a very good hitting team,” Albert said. “But a big part of our preparation has been doing our best to do whatever we can to get better each day in practice.”
