Dartmouth College: Fowler Caps Three-Run Ninth to Complete Sweep of Columbia

Sophomore Justin Fowler homered and provided the walk-off hit in the ninth of game two.    

Courtesy: Mike Janes

HANOVER, N.H. — With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth of the nightcap with the score tied at six, sophomore Justin Fowler hit a ball over the center fielder’s head for a walk-off single, allowing Dartmouth (9-17, 3-3 Ivy) to complete a sweep of the visiting Columbia Lions (9-18, 3-5 Ivy) in a rematch of the last three Ivy League Championship Series.

In the first game, Big Green senior right-hander Beau Sulser (2-1) tamed the Lions in a 3-1 victory, hurling six innings while yielding just the one run on six hits with four strikeouts. Junior Chris Burkholder then retired the side in order in the seventh to earn his first save of the season.

Dartmouth entered the bottom of the ninth of the finale trailing, 6-4, and Columbia reliever George
Thanopoulos (1-4) started the stanza with a strikeout. But sophomore Kyle Holbrook rifled a single back up the middle, and pinch hitter Rob Emery roped a shot to center for another hit, putting the tying runs on base. When junior Michael Ketchmark yanked a pitch through the left side for an RBI single — his fourth RBI of the game — the Lions turned to closer Harrison Egly to get the final two outs.

But Egly had thrown three innings the previous day, and his control was not sharp as he walked the first two batters he faced, forcing in the tying run. He recovered to get a strikeout, but Fowler put a charge into his 0-1 pitch and sent it sailing into deep center field for the winning hit.

The two teams each scored twice in the first inning with Robb Paller and Randell Kanemaru driving in runs for the Lions, and Ketchmark belting a two-run shot in the bottom half for Dartmouth, his team-leading fourth long ball of the year.

Columbia took the lead in the third, knocking Big Green starter Clay Chatham from the mound as Kyle Bartelman hit an RBI triple and John Kinne greeted Burkholder, making his second appearance of the day, by lofting a sacrifice fly for a 4-2 lead.

Burkholder kept the Lions at bay through the fifth with his three shutout innings of relief, and Fowler closed the gap to one in the bottom of the fifth with his first career home run into the net above the left-field fence.

Logan Boyher answered back for Columbia in the sixth with a deep solo shot down the left-field line onto Park Street for his fourth four-bagger of the year, and Lane Robinette extended the lead to three in the seventh with two-out RBI triple to plate Nick Maguire, who had walked for the fourth time in the game.

Holbrook and Ketchmark hit doubles in the Big Green half of the seventh for a run, setting the stage for thrilling end.

Sophomore Patrick Peterson earned the victory with two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Both Holbrook and Ketchmark had three hits to lead the 13-hit attack.

While both teams went to the bullpen early in the nightcap, the first game was a pitching duel between Sulser and Columbia southpaw Josh Simpson. Both threw zeroes on the board for the first three frames, though Sulser had to make a good defensive play on a dribbler to throw out Will Savage trying to score in the third inning.

In the fourth, however, the Lions threatened again when Bartelman hit his first triple of the day leading off the inning, and Maguire walked to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Only the defensive play of the game kept Columbia from scoring multiple runs in the frame as the first baseman Ketchmark made a diving stab of a screamer off the bat of Kinne, then crawled to first to tag the bag with his glove and double up Maguire for the second out. Mark Patrick Flynn provided a clutch pinch hit for the Lions, however, dumping a single into right-center for a 1-0 Columbia lead.

Dartmouth responded in the bottom half on when Ketchmark singled with one out, took second on a two-out wild pitch and scored on senior Nick Ruppert’s double over the right fielder’s head.

Fowler started the game-winning rally in the fifth, pulling a single through the hole on the left side before advancing to second on a sacrifice by senior Adam Gauthier. After another wild pitch, freshman Matt Feinstein singled up the middle through a drawn-in infield for the lead. A throwing error on a nubber near the mound extended the inning, and following a walk to Ketchmark that loaded the bases, senior Thomas Roulis hit a single into shallow center that score one run, though Savage gunned down Holbrook at the plate to end the inning.

It did not matter as Sulser retired the last seven batters he faced after Flynn’s RBI single, and Burkholder shut the door to seal the victory.

Simpson (1-2) was stuck with the loss despite his quality start, allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits and a pair of walks to go with four strikeouts in his six-inning complete-game effort.

Roulis had two of the seven Big Green hits, while Savage collected two of the six hits for the Lions.

Dartmouth will finish a six-game homestand on Tuesday when it hosts UMass Lowell (13-14) at 3 p.m.

Notes: Dartmouth swept a doubleheader from Columbia for the first time since Biondi Park opened prior to the 2009 season. The Lions were the last team in the league to be swept at the venue by the Big Green … Ketchmark’s four RBIs are the most by a Big Green player in a game this season, and the most since Nick Lombardi had four against Brown on April 19 last year … Dartmouth has hit two homers in a game three times this year after not doing so for the entire 2015 season.