Big Green Tied for First After Twinbill Sweep at Cornell

Senior Adam Gauthier    

Courtesy: Mike Janes

ITHACA, N.Y. — Piecing together the pitching staff in a rare mid-week Ivy League doubleheader, Dartmouth was able to limit the Cornell lineup to just nine hits on the afternoon to sweep the host Big Red, 9-3 and 3-1. The Big Green (13-20, 7-5 Ivy) utilized seven pitchers in the two games to catch Yale at the top of the Rolfe Division standings with the two scheduled to square off in a four-game series this weekend in Hanover.

Cornell fell to 12-16 overall and 5-9 in the Ivy League, dropping the Big Red four games behind Princeton in the Gehrig Division with eight to play.

The two teams were tied at three apiece in the sixth inning of the opener when senior catcher Adam
Gauthier — who had committed two errors in the previous inning that allowed the Big Red to tie the game — led off the inning with a base hit against reliever Scott Soltis (0-4). After taking second on a sacrifice bunt, Gauthier advanced to third on an infield out. He then sprinted home with the go-ahead run on a passed ball.

Gauthier’s redemption continued in the seventh as the Big Green loaded the bases with one out, lofting a sacrifice fly for a 5-3 lead. Dartmouth then piled on with an RBI single by junior Ben Socher, a two-run triple by sophomore Dustin Shirley and an infield hit for sophomore Kyle Holbrook that brought Shirley home with the ninth and final run.

Cornell took an early 1-0 lead in the first against senior Duncan Robinson, who was trying to give the Big Green some innings on three days’ rest. Frankie Padulo led off with a four-pitch walk, stole second and went to third on a single off the bat of C.J. Price. Although Robinson induced a double-play grounder, Padulo crossed the plate with the game’s first run.

Dartmouth got that run back in the third when freshman Matt Feinstein and Shirley started the stanza with base hits, and Holbrook moved them up with a bunt. Ketchmark followed with a ringing RBI single to left, but Big Red hurler Michael Byrne escaped further damage by inducing a double play of his own to end the inning.

Mark Fraser put the Big Red back on top in the fourth against reliever Michael Danielak with a two-out, RBI double, but the Big Green answered back in the fifth. Holbrook was hit by a pitch and senior Michael Ketchmark walked on a full-count pitch before Roulis hit the very next pitch on a line over the second baseman’s head into right-center for a two-run double and a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom half, Cornell took advantage of the two errors by Gauthier that put runners on first and third with one out. Junior Chris Burkholder was summoned to the mound, and it looked like he would wriggle out of the jam thanks to a routine grounder near second base. But the Big Red put the runner on first in motion, keeping Dartmouth from turning two, which allowed Cornell to score the tying run.

Holbrook was a perfect 3-for-3 in the game, scoring one run and driving in another, while Roulis and Shirley each had two runs and two RBIs.

Cornell managed just three hits against a trio of Dartmouth pitchers, the last of which was Burkholder (2-0), who earned the victory as he retired all eight batters he faced, three via the strikeout, to close out the game.

In the nightcap, the two teams were engaged in a scoreless duel into the fourth, partly due to a sliding catch in deep right-center field by Dartmouth center fielder Nick Ruppert to end the Cornell half of the third. Big Red starter Tim Willittes retired the first 10 batters, but the Big Green suddenly got triple happy as Shirley and Holbrook hit back-to-back three-baggers. After Ketchmark collected an RBI with a sacrifice fly, Roulis also tripled, but was stranded there with Dartmouth holding a 2-0 lead.

Dartmouth extended its advantage to three runs in the sixth on a two-out single to left, courtesy of freshman Rob Emery, to score Holbrook, who had walked with one out and gone to second on a Roulis single. An infield hit by Ruppert loaded the bases, but Willittes limited the damage by getting a fly to right to end the inning.

In the seventh, Cornell was the recipient of a little wildness and some Big Green mistakes in the field, yet could only scrape out a single run. Ellis Bitar began the inning with a four-pitch walk, and one out later, Dartmouth called upon the services of sophomore closer Patrick Peterson. Griffin Tutun also walked, and when the base running duo pulled off a double steal, Bitar came home as the throw was mishandled at third. A hit batter and catcher’s interference then loaded the bases to put the tying runs in scoring position with one out. But Peterson was up to the challenge as he induced an infield pop and pumped a called third strike past Fraser to retire the side with the two-run lead intact.

The Big Red threatened again in the ninth with consecutive one-out singles to put runners on the corners. But Gauthier came up big again, this time gunning down Jordan Winawer trying to steal second, and Peterson finished off his third save of the year on a slow grounder to third.

Freshman Cole O’Connor started the game and provided three scoreless innings, while sophomore southpaw Marc Bachman (1-1) earned the victory with two shutout stanzas of his own. Shirley and Roulis each had two hits again to lead the Dartmouth bats.

Willittes (2-4) suffered the loss despite providing a quality start of three runs in six innings on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

The four-game series with Yale (13-22, 7-5) begins with a noon doubleheader on Saturday. All four games will be streamed live via Big Green Insider on the Ivy League Digital Network with Wayne Young ’72 calling all of the action.

Notes: Dartmouth’s three triples in one inning are a school record and just one shy of the Division I record achieved three times, last by Wichita State in 1983 … the last time the Big Green swept a doubleheader at Cornell was in 2008.