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April 11, 2008
Brown (12-13, 4-4 Ivy) vs. Dartmouth (14-9, 7-1 Ivy) With a 20-game season compressed into five weekends, every Ivy League game is certainly important. However, for teams in the playoff hunt, there always seems to be one series that stands out ones intra-division play starts. For the Brown baseball team, this weekend will see the first-place Dartmouth Big Green come to town for a four-game set that will likely be that do-or-die series. At 7-1 in the Ivy League, Dartmouth (14-9) has a 2.5-game lead on second-place Yale (5-2) and a three-game lead on the Bears. With Harvard sitting in last at 1-7, the Red Rolfe Division has almost completely reversed itself from last season, when the Big Green had only five wins in 20 Ivy games and the Crimson lost just eight. The Bears enter the weekend having evened their Ivy record thanks to a 3-1 home weekend, sweeping Cornell and splitting with Princeton. Senior Anthony Vita (West Babylon, NY) provided the pitching highlight of the weekend, going seven innings against the Tigers to pick up his first career complete game in a 2-1 win. He gave up just three hits and one walk in the outing, inducing 15 ground ball outs. Sophomore right fielder Nick Puñal (Palm Beach, FL) hit .556 (5-for-9) on the weekend, while junior shortstop Matt Nuzzo (Everett, MA) provided the power with three doubles and two home runs in the four games. On the year, freshman catcher Matt Colantonio (Garden City, NY) has a team-high .427 average. However, it's Puñal who leads the team during Ivy play with a .409 average. Nuzzo's four home runs, which have all come since last Wednesday, lead the team, as do his 23 runs scored and 25 RBIs. Junior center fielder Steve Daniels (Fox Point, WI) leads the team and the Ivy League with 12 steals. Scouting Dartmouth In the bullpen, freshman Ryan Smith is Dartmouth's closer, earning two saves in four Ivy appearances, allowing just two unearned runs in 3.1 innings pitched. Senior Bobby Steinsdoerfer has allowed just one hit but walked four in 3.1 scoreless innings as well. Senior Kyle Zeis, an honorable mention All-Ivy reliver in 2007, has made just one Ivy appearance, allowing five runs and not recording an out, walking four, hitting a batter, and uncorking a wild pitch. At the plate, junior first baseman Michael Pagliarulo has a .469 average in Ivy play to lead the Big Green, while his .403 mark in all games also leads his team. He has four homers on the year, tied with 2007 second team All-Ivy center fielder Damon Wright for the team lead. Senior shortstop Erik Bell and sophomore right fielder Nick Santomauro are second and third on the team in average in Ivy play at .387 and .385, respectively. The Dartmouth-Brown series The Tale of the Tape (Conference stats) |
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