Crimson Avoids Doubleheader Sweep with Narrow Win in Nightcap

With leading Ivy League Player of the Year candidate Nick Santomauro coming to bat for Dartmouth, Harvard baseball coach Joe Walsh knew he needed to play the percentages.

It wasn’t an easy call. After all, his starter—freshman ace Conner Hulse—had handed him a gem, striking out six over 8 1/3 innings against the Rolfe Division champion Big Green.

But with one out in the ninth inning of the last league game of the season for the Crimson, Walsh wanted the lefty-lefty matchup against Santomauro, bringing in rookie Will Keuper to face the junior slugger.

For a brief second, it looked like the wrong move. Santomauro connected—and hard—on the second pitch of the at-bat, and the ball sailed to deep right center.

But with a little help from the wind, the ball nested into the glove of sophomore center fielder Dillon O’Neill with his back against the wall.

“It’s a good thing that sign out there says 370 and not 368 because otherwise we might still be playing,” Walsh said after the game.

Senior second baseman Taylor Meehan took the mound to get the final out, wrapping up the victory.

The 4-3 win handed Harvard (12-28, 10-10 Ivy) a split in yesterday’s home double-header against Dartmouth (22-13, 16-4), enabling the Crimson to reach the .500 mark in league play this year.

Like it’s been doing all season long, Harvard lived and died by its starting pitching.

“The way these two games played out was typical of our season,” Walsh said.

In the opening game of the twinbill, junior starter Dan Zailskas got roughed up, allowing nine earned runs before exiting in the fourth. The Big Green took the contest 11-5, clinching the Rolfe Division crown.

But in the nightcap, Hulse helped the Crimson end the league schedule on a good note.

“It’s a respect thing,” senior outfielder Tom Stack-Babich said of the win. “It’s about getting a little pride.”

HARVARD 4, DARTMOUTH 3

Having already earned its spot in next week’s Ivy League Championship series, the Big Green could afford to rest some of its regulars in the second game of the day.

And Hulse took full advantage of the slightly weakened Dartmouth lineup. The freshman picked up his first collegiate win, giving up just three runs, walking only one batter, and threatening to pitch a complete game.

“He’s been throwing strikes and being more aggressive than he was earlier in the year,” Stack Babich said of Hulse.

“Conner’s established himself as one of the best pitchers in the Ivy League now,” captain Harry Douglas said.

The double play was Hulse’s best friend over the course of the game. After nailing the first batter he faced, he gave up a couple of hits, putting the Crimson in a 1-0 hole. But after a fly out, freshman shortstop Jeff Reynolds made a nice play to turn two and get Hulse out of the inning.

Harvard answered right back in the bottom of the frame, with Tyler Albright grounding into a fielders choice to bring home O’Neill.

Dartmouth took the lead once again in the fourth, but this time, the Crimson scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead.

With Stack-Babich on first, Walsh sent in Zailskas as a pinch hitter. Making amends for his below-par pitching performance earlier, the junior knocked a big single up the middle. Senior outfielder Matt Rogers was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Reynolds, who poked a hit through the right side of the infield, bringing home Stack-Babich and Zailskas.

Harvard extended its lead to 4-2 in the fifth, courtesy of an RBI single from Stack-Babich.

Hulse got into trouble in the seventh, but the double-play ball came to the rescue yet again. With no outs, an RBI double from senior Johnathon Santopadre pulled the Big Green to within one run, but a good throw from Rogers held the tying run at third. Walsh showed faith in his rookie hurler by leaving him in the game, and Hulse repaid his coach by getting a strikeout. He then intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases, before a big double play kept the Crimson lead intact.

“Conner put us in a place to get a lot of ground balls,” Walsh said. “He’s throwing the ball from the top of the patella to the bottom of the patella—it’s just knee-high, knee-high, knee-high.”

With the game on the line, Dartmouth pinch-hit its star Santomauro, forcing Walsh to make the pitching change.

Santomauro—who was named to the all-Ivy first team in both his freshman and sophomore years—entered the series hitting over .400 on the season.

“Santomauro is the best hitter in our league and has been for the last couple of years.”

Meehan struck out Santopadre to end the game.

“I like how we battled through and I’m proud of how we came out this weekend after the tough weekend against Brown,” Douglas said.

DARTMOUTH 11, HARVARD 5

The Big Green knew what it had to do coming into the day to ensure itself a chance to play for the Ivy League title, and was able to jump out to an early lead against Zailskas.

Santomauro got the scoring started in the top of the first, knocking an RBI double down the right field line, and the Big Green strung together a few more hits in the inning to take a 3-0 lead.

Santomauro got his second RBI of the day in the second, crushing a line drive to left, and Dartmouth was up 5-0 after just two innings.

The Crimson pulled a few runs back in the third via a two-run error and an RBI single from Stack-Babich.

The senior went 3-for-4 in the game and was Harvard’s main offensive threat on the day.

“I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball really well the last couple of weeks, but just right at people,” Stack-Babich said. “So it was nice to get a couple hits that weren’t caught.”

That would be as close as the Crimson would come, though, as the Big Green added four in the top of the next inning. Senior Ray Allen hit a three-run homer in the fourth after a bloop single had already scored a run.

“Once you get tense and the pitches get up a little bit, they have some guys who can really drive the ball,” Walsh said.

One of those hard-hit balls was snagged by O’Neill in the fifth, when the sophomore made a highlight-reel over-the-shoulder catch. He added a diving grab in the second game.

Harvard returns to the diamond on Tuesday in its final game of the year against Northeastern.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.