Big Green Earns Division Title with Sweep

The scene at O’Donnell Field on Saturday afternoon told the story of the 2008 season in Ivy League baseball: Dartmouth celebrated after yet another victory, while Harvard was left to watch and consider how it had fallen just short—again.

The Big Green scored two late unearned runs to seal a 7-3 victory in Saturday’s opener, then held off a eighth-inning Crimson rally to clinch the Red Rolfe division title with a 5-4 win in the nightcap.

When Harvard had only pride to gain, its Achilles’ heel—an inability to keep pace with the best Ivy League lineups—came back to haunt it once again. Dartmouth’s relentless offense, highlighted by Nick Santomauro, Michael Pagliarulo, and Damon Wright in the three-, four-, and five-holes, gave Crimson pitching trouble all afternoon.

“We were just trying to go after them and not give them any free bases,” said freshman catcher Tyler Albright, who caught the second game of the twinbill. “But they hit the ball well, stayed back on the ball and drove it.”

What has perennially been a dramatic final weekend between these two clubs lacked the tension of recent years, and Dartmouth’s doubleheader sweep only enforced the substantial gap between the clubs in the standings.

“A chance for a winning season in the Ivies is down the drain, so that’s tough to cope with,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “We just didn’t do enough today.”

DARTMOUTH 5, HARVARD 4

It was just another “too little, too late” day at the ballpark for the Crimson in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, as Harvard rallied to come within one in the eighth inning but left the potential tying run on second base in a 5-4 loss.

“You feel like ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda, what if, if only,’” Walsh said. “That second game was typical of that.”

After being held scoreless through seven innings by Dartmouth starter Jake Pruner, Harvard’s bats came alive in the eighth. With one out in the inning, Big Green reliever Kyle Zeis surrendered walks to Matt Rogers and Andrew Prince around a double from freshman Sean O’Hara. After a passed ball plated Rogers, Albright put the Crimson right back in the game with a three-run shot to left-center.

“It was my first collegiate home run, so it felt really good rounding second base,” Albright said.

“I thought we were going to come back, but I didn’t think it would take that long,” Walsh said.

Albright’s clutch hit was payback for a highlight-reel-worthy play in the previous inning: Big Green left fielder Jason Blydell took a grand slam away from Crimson freshman Dillon O’Neill by grabbing a hard-hit ball from beyond the outfield fence, maintaining the shutout and bringing the many fans who had traveled from Hanover to their feet.

Dartmouth lefty slugger Santomauro wasted no time getting the Big Green on the board in the nightcap, showing opposite-field power with a two-run shot to left-center in the first. Dartmouth added single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, running the score to 5-0 before Big Green coach Bob Whalen lifted Pruner for Zeis in a surprising move.

DARTMOUTH 7, HARVARD 3

Lightning isn’t supposed to strike twice, but the opener of Saturday’s twinbill saw senior shortstop Jeff Stoeckel commit errors on back-to-back routine grounders to extend the sixth inning for Santomauro. The Big Green sophomore made the Crimson pay with a two-run triple that plated both unearned runs and provided Dartmouth with some insurance en route to a 7-3 victory.

Santomauro and teammates Pagliarulo and Wright went 4-for-10 with four RBIs in the opener.

“Those are the guys that we worry about, and we couldn’t do much with them all day,” Walsh said. “We just tried to get the other guys out.”

Harvard had a fair amount of success early against Dartmouth lefty ace Russell Young, who allowed a scattered six hits and three runs over a seven-inning, complete game effort. O’Neill accounted for all of the Crimson’s offense, shooting nearly-identical doubles down the left field line in both the second and fourth innings.

But Harvard went quietly at the plate after Dartmouth took the lead on a James Wren RBI single in the fifth, failing to put a man on base in any of the last three frames.

The Big Green’s sluggers punished senior starter Max Warren in his final innings in front of the home crowd. After Warren retired the side in order in the first, Wright’s booming, first-pitch triple to center scored Pagliarulo, who had singled.

Freshmen Ben Sestanovich and Zach Hofeld each pitched an inning of relief, with Sestanovich surrendering two unearned runs on Santomauro’s triple.

—Staff writer Emily W. Cunningham can be reached at ecunning@fas.harvard.edu.