April 19, 2008

Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

HANOVER, N.H.--The Yale baseball team entered this weekend's make-or-break series 2.5 games behind first-place Dartmouth in the Rolfe Division. After Saturday's doubleheader split at Red Rolfe Field, the Bulldogs still trail the Big Green by 2.5 games. Yale (18-19-1, 8-5-1 Ivy) took the first game of the twinbill, 5-3 in eight innings, before Dartmouth (19-12, 11-3 Ivy) tallied a 13-6 victory in the nightcap.

Game one was an old-fashioned pitcher's duel between each team's top starter--Yale's Brian Irving and Dartmouth's Russell Young.

The Bulldogs failed to score despite back-to-back singles to open both the first and second innings. The first inning rally was killed when Josh Cox was hit by a batted ball, and the Big Green got out of the second with a double play. Dartmouth then drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the second. Michael Pagliarulo started the inning with a single to center. After two walks loaded the bases, Pagliarulo scored when Jack Monahan lifted a sacrifice fly to left field.

Yale took the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. With one out, Jake Doyle roped a fly ball deep to center field that would have been a homer anywhere other than the cavernous Red Rolfe Field, where it's 445 feet to straightaway center. After Doyle's 430-foot double, Andy Megee followed with a home run to right center. The two-run blast, Megee's third of the year, gave the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. Yale added another run in the fifth when Gant Elmore belted a leadoff single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Cox's RBI double.

In the bottom of the fifth, Irving issued a one-out walk to Jeff Onstott. Nick Santomauro was up next and tied the game with a towering two-run homer to left field. With Pagliarulo on first and two down in the bottom of the seventh, Irving struck out Damon Wright looking to send the game into extra innings.

With one out in the top of the eighth, Chris Sweeney hit a roller towards first that Pagliarulo couldn't handle. Following the error, Andrew Moore delivered a no-doubt-about-it blast to left that gave the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead. Closer Steve Gilman came in to pitch the bottom of the eight, but hit leadoff man James Wren. After retiring the next two hitters, Gilman walked number-nine hitter Jason McManis to put the tying run on base. However, he struck out Erik Bell looking to end the game and nail down his fifth save of the season.

The Bulldogs had 12 hits in game one, with Cox going 3-for-4. Doyle and Megee both went 2-for-4 at the plate. Irving (4-2) went seven innings, giving up three runs and five hits while striking out four and walking five. Gilman had two strikeouts in the eighth. Yale is now 4-0 in conference games started by Irving.

Dartmouth had five hits in game one, four singles and Santomauro's two-run homer. Young (4-3) went the distance for the Big Green. He gave up five runs (four earned) and 12 hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in game two. Megee gave Yale the early advantage with a double that scored Cox and P.J. Gorynski in the top of the first. Yale added another run in the top of the second when Elmore scored on a passed ball.

Yale starter Brandon Josselyn worked out of a bases loaded, nobody out jam in the top of the first by striking out Pagliarulo, then getting Wright to bounce back to the mound. Josselyn threw home for one out and Wright was ruled out at first when Bell was called for interference, ending the rally. However, Josselyn couldn't get out of trouble in the second. After he retired the leadoff man, Jason Blydell's triple ignited a five-run rally in which 10 Big Green hitters came to the plate.

Dartmouth added another run in the third, then the floodgates opened again in the fourth. The first seven Dartmouth hitters in the inning reached base, and the first six scored. Josselyn came out after giving up a double to Onstott and an RBI single by Santomauro. Chris Walsh was asked to stop the bleeding, but didn't record an out. He was yanked after giving up Blydell's second triple of the game. Blydell scored to make it 12-4 on Monahan's RBI single off Robert Gruber, the third Yale pitcher of the inning. After that, Gruber finally cooled down the Big Green bats. He struck out Pagliarulo with the bases loaded to end the inning, then retired the next eight in order before yielding a solo home run to Pagliarulo leading off the bottom of the seventh.

The Bulldogs tried to chip away with a run in the fourth and another in the fifth. In the fourth, Cox reached on a fielder's choice, stole second, and scored on Gorynski's RBI single. Doyle belted a solo shot to right, his seventh homer of the year, leading off the fifth inning. From that point on, however, Yale couldn't get any sustained offensive momentum against Dartmouth's Jake Pruner and Kyle Zeis. Yale added one final run in the ninth on Stefan Schropp's RBI single off Ben Murray.

Yale managed 10 hits in the second game, led by Dan Soltman's 3-for-4 effort. Megee went 1-for-4 and drove in two runs, giving him four RBIs on the day. Cox was 1-for-4 and scored twice. Josselyn (2-6) took the loss after giving up eight runs and 11 hits in three innings. He also struck out two and walked two. Gruber gave up one run and three hits while walking one in five innings. He tallied a career-high seven strikeouts.

Every batter in the Dartmouth lineup except nine-hitter McManis had at least one hit and all except Monahan scored at least one run. Pagliarulo was 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored, while Blydell went 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBIs. As a team, Dartmouth tallied 17 hits. After struggling early, Pruner (3-2) settled down and threw seven solid innings to earn the win. He gave up five runs and eight hits while striking out six and walking two. Zeis recorded two strikeouts in a hitless eighth, while Murray gave up a run and two hits with a strikeout in the ninth.

By winning the first game, the Bulldogs guaranteed that they cannot be eliminated this weekend. However, a Dartmouth sweep on Sunday will put Yale 4.5 games back with four, and possibly the conclusion of the suspended 9-9 tie with Penn, to play. The scheduled starters in Sunday's twinbill, which begins at 12 p.m., are right-hander Chris Finneran and left-hander Alex Christ for Yale going against Dartmouth southpaw Robert Young and righty Chase Carpenter.

Report filed by Joe Clifford, Yale Sports Publicity