Baseball Splits Two Tight Games with Brown

Saturday, March 26

Hanover, N.H.

11:30 AM

Dartmouth College

8-8, 1-0

Brown

3-10, 0-1

Brown

Dartmouth

Kade Kretzschmar greeting his teammates after his go-ahead, two-run homer in game one.

Photo by: Doug Austin

3/26/2022 5:19:00 PM | Baseball

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Kade Kretzschmar hit a game-winning two-run homer in the opener

By: Rick Bender

HANOVER, N.H. — Playing in front of its home fans at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park for the first time in nearly three years, the Dartmouth baseball team thrilled the crowd in the first game of a doubleheader by downing Brown, 5-3, in the Ivy League opener for both squads. The game was decided on senior Kade Kretzschmar's two-run, opposite-field home run that broke 3-3 deadlock in the seventh inning.

The Bears (4-10, 1-1 Ivy) returned the favor in the nightcap, however, scoring four runs in the eighth to rally for a 4-2 triumph and earn a split of the twinbill with the Big Green (8-9, 1-1 Ivy).

The opener did not start well for Dartmouth or senior starting pitcher Nathan Skinner as Brown peppered him for seven hits in the first two innings to claw out three runs. The Big Green did get two of those runs back to briefly tie the game in the bottom of the first thanks to errors that allowed the first two batters to reach base. Senior Justin Murray then delivered an RBI single and sophomore Tyler Cox scored the second run on a grounder to second off the bat of junior James House. He was able to cross the plate only because junior Kolton Freeman deftly avoided a tag going from first to second, staying out of a double play that would have ended the inning.

After throwing 51 pitches to go through those shaky first two innings, Skinner settled into a groove and pitched scoreless ball through the seventh, allowing just three hits. He did have to work around a leadoff double in the fifth and consecutive singles to start the seventh, but no runner reached third base after the second stanza.

Meanwhile, Brown hurler Bobby Olsen was also putting zeroes on the board, save the fifth when Dartmouth loaded the bases on a Cox single, Kretzschmar double and a hit batter with one out. Again House hit a roller to second that was hit too softly to do anything other than get an out at first, allowing the tying run to score.

Cox led off the seventh with another single, and after Murray sacrificed him to second, Kretzschmar made the bunt moot by crushing the first pitch he saw into the netting about 10 feet above the fence in left field for a 5-3 lead.

Junior Jack Metzger relieved Skinner (2-1), who had thrown 109 pitches and struck out a career-high 10 batters, and proceeded to retire all six batters he faced with three punchouts for his second save.

Dartmouth was out-hit by the Bears, 10-8, with two apiece from Cox (who scored three times), Kretzschmar and House, the latter two driving in two runs each as well.

Olsen (0-1) was stuck with the loss despite yielding just three earned runs (five in all) on eight hits over seven innings. Neither team walked a batter in a game that took just 2:12 to complete.

The roles reversed in game two as the Big Green jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second on a Freeman triple, RBI double off the bat of junior Connor Bertsch and a double steal on which Bertsch swiped home.

Dartmouth senior southpaw Trystan Sarcone got into trouble in the first inning when a leadoff double and a single put runners on the corners with nobody out. But Bertsch threw out a runner at the plate on a grounder to third, and Sarcone kept the Bears off the board for the remained of his six stanzas on the mound. He retired 11 batters in a row at one point and did not allow a runner to reach second again until the sixth when Brown poked a pair of one-out singles and drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Again Sarcone eluded any damage by recording his seventh strikeout of the afternoon.

After reliever Cole Roland (1-1) retired the side in order in the seventh, he ran into trouble in the eighth on a Derian Morphew leadoff double and RBI single by Nathan Brasher. When a pair of one-out walks loaded the bases, head coach Bob Whalen called upon Metzger again. He got the second out on a called third strike and got a pinch hitter to hit a fly ball. But the right fielder came in on the ball at first, then leapt to catch it only to have it go off the side of his glove for a three-base error, clearing the bases and giving the Bears a 4-2 lead.

Dartmouth put the tying runs in scoring position in the ninth, but Paxton Meyers induced a weak grounder to second to end the game for his first save and snap the Big Green's five-game winning streak, their longest since a six-game streak in May of 2018.

Tobey McDonough (2-1) earned the win with seven strong innings, giving up the two runs on four hits and a walk while fanning four.

The two teams will play the rubber game of the series tomorrow at noon at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

Notes: Whalen was honored between games for winning his 600th game at Dartmouth — three years ago on May 5, 2019. This was the first home game since that historic milestone … Bertsch had a 12-game hitting streak snapped in the opener … over his last 8.2 innings, Metzger has allowed just two hits without a walk while striking out 11 … the last Dartmouth pitcher to strike out 10 batters or more in a game was Jack Fossand on April 1, 2018, when he punched out 11 Penn batters.

Peter Roby (left) presents Bob Whalen with a framed photo and a commemorative baseball for winning 600 games at Dartmouth

Interim AD Peter Roby '79 (left) presents Bob Whalen with a framed photo and a commemorative baseball between the two games of the doubleheader for winning 600 games at Dartmouth.