Big Green Snatches First Doubleheader

The Harvard baseball team (9-34, 5-13 Ivy) scored just one run in its two games on Saturday, and the squad dropped yet another doubleheader to the Big Green (26-10, 12-6), losing, 4-1 and 6-0.

The team was swept in a doubleheader for the eighth time this year.

“This was a disappointing season for us in a big way. This was a losing season in the Ivy [League] and a losing season elsewhere,” Harvard coach Joe Walsh said. “[Dartmouth is] a good ballclub, and they proved why they’ve been the champs the last couple years. Those guys really stepped up.”

DARTMOUTH 6, HARVARD 0

Through six innings, the second game of the twinbill was held scoreless. But the Big Green blew the game open in the seventh and the eighth, scoring three in each frame to take the easy 6-0 win.

Dartmouth chased senior starter Max Perlman in the seventh after he surrendered three runs, two of which were earned.

“We were going into the game knowing that we couldn’t win the Ivy League, so we just played for ourselves,” Perlman said. “We did what we could do, but their pitchers did very well to shut us down. But we kept fighting all throughout [Saturday].”

With the bases loaded, Big Green third baseman Jeff Keller singled to left to drive in a pair. A throwing error by freshman Jake McGuiggan allowed the third run come home all the way from first.

“It was 0-0 as we entered the seventh inning, and I was lucky enough to keep us in the game,” Perlman said. “I thought we played very well, but we just let it slip away.”

Perlman struck out the next batter, and junior southpaw Will Keuper came into the game in relief to retire the side.

In the eighth, the Big Green continued adding to its lead, driving home three off of the lefty to push the lead to six.

Though the team was never able to capitalize, Harvard had its chances to score.

In the second inning, junior Marcus Way, who already had advanced to third on a passed ball, made a break for the plate on an errant pitch from Dartmouth starter Mitch Horacek. But a quick recovery and throw from Big Green catcher Chris O’Dowd was in time, and Dartmouth ended the threat.

The Crimson had one more shot in the ninth to get on the board. With runners on second and third with one out, Way lined into a double play to end the game.

Senior Sean O’Hara went 2-for-3 and reached base three times, but Harvard was limited to just six hits.

DARTMOUTH 4, HARVARD 1

Despite hurling a complete game, senior lefthander Eric Eadington could not keep Harvard in the game, surrendering three runs in the final two innings en route to Dartmouth’s 4-1 win.

The Big Green jumped out to a lead in the third, as Dartmouth’s lead-off hitter and shortstop Joe Sclafani drove in the game’s first run on an RBI groundout.

After another inning and a half of scoreless play, Big Green left fielder Sam Bean knocked a homer off of Eadington to right-center field, giving Dartmouth a three-run lead.

Harvard finally got things going in the sixth. Sophomore first baseman Danny Moskovits hit a double down the left-field line to put a runner in scoring position. Freshman left fielder Jack Colton singled up the middle, and the Crimson had runners on the corners with no outs.

Senior center fielder Dillon O’Neill grounded out to short, but the run came home to make the score 3-1.

But that’s as close as Harvard would get. Dartmouth added an insurance run in the bottom of the same frame, and Harvard could not mount a comeback.

“When you have this kind of season, you think you’re going to have an opportunity to turn things around…and we never got it for ourselves,” Walsh said.

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.