Big Green Baseball Loses Home Opener, Doubleheader, to Penn

HANOVER, NH — Today, Sunday, April 2, Dartmouth’s baseball team had its home-opening series, hosting the Penn Quakers. Amidst the breezy spring air, the Big Green lost both games of the doubleheader, 10-6 and 9-4, respectively. 

Penn got on the board early with a triple and single in the first inning of the first game, and never looked back. Dartmouth’s half of the inning saw a ripe opportunity with three walks loading the bases, but the lineup failed to deliver. The Big Green’s Jack Metzger then allowed a two-run blast in the second, one run to score in the fifth, and five in the sixth. 

Dartmouth was held to no hits for the first five innings of the game. Infielder Peter O’Toole then broke the tension with a leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth. A hit-by-pitch, a controversial balk call, and a walk loaded the bases for the Big Green’s second scoring opportunity, but the Quaker pitching weaseled itself out of the jam. 

Trailing 9-0 in the bottom of the eighth, the Dartmouth bats finally came alive. Max Zajec’s bases-clearing double tightened the score, and doubles from Jackson Hower and O’Toole also produced runs to make it 9-6. Penn’s dugout became noticeably agitated by the brewing comeback and directed jeers towards the umpires. 

Penn scored another run in the ninth and, despite the Big Green’s remarkable attempt in the preceding inning, managed to retire the last batters one-two-three to close out the game. Following this loss and the second one later that day, Dartmouth’s record fell to 1-18 overall and 0-5 within the Ivy League. While ranked third in a preseason poll, the team sits at last place early on. It will look to rebound in the rest of its eleven-game homestand with UMass Lowell and Harvard.