Baseball Loses Two, Wins One in Pivotal Dartmouth Series

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — The Harvard baseball team lost the first two games of its series against Dartmouth this weekend, but a powerful eighth inning in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader propelled the Crimson to a vital comeback victory.

After trailing 6-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning — the 20th inning of the day after the first game went to 12 innings — Harvard sophomore utilityman Cullen Stone hit a three-RBI double to tie the score before sophomore utilityman Gavin Smith hit an RBI-single to drive in what would be the winning run in the series’ closeout game.

“All year, that’s what our coaches have put us in a position to do,” Stone said after the game. “I didn’t have my best day at the plate, but I just trusted myself to put a good shot in and help the team out.”

The win certainly helped the Crimson, as the team now sits tied for fourth in the Ivy League standings with preseason favorite Columbia. The top four teams in the conference will advance to the Ivy League baseball tournament in May, and with just two weekends of baseball left to be played, only one and a half games separate fourth and eighth place in the standings.

Harvard 3, Dartmouth 5

The opening game of the series — which was rescheduled from Sunday to Friday due to anticipated rain — started off exactly as Harvard hoped it would.

The Crimson’s starting pitcher, freshman Davis Kahn, had a dominant start on the mound, as the Massachusetts native allowed just one run to the Big Green on a seventh-inning double.

Harvard, on the other hand, had less trouble getting on the board, scoring one run each in the bottom of the second, fourth, and sixth innings. Two of those runs came courtesy of freshman infielder Matthew Witkow, who followed up a fourth-inning sacrifice fly with an RBI single in the sixth.

Unfortunately for the host, their dominance did not last, and the 3-1 lead that the Crimson took into the eighth inning was quickly surmounted. With the bases loaded in the top of the eighth, Dartmouth paired a fielder’s choice RBI with a bunted RBI single to tie the score and put pressure on Harvard.

The Crimson did not score in the bottom of the frame, and in the top of the ninth, the Big Green hit a pair of RBI doubles to take the lead for the first time in the game. Harvard did not answer, and the visitors walked away with a close-call win in the opener.

Harvard 4, Dartmouth 6 (12 innings)

Dartmouth continued its strong late-game performance from Friday to open the doubleheader the next morning, scoring two runs on RBI base hits in the second inning before adding another run on an RBI walk in the fifth to claim a 3-0 advantage over the Crimson.

Harvard didn’t take long to answer, however, scoring its first run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI walk from junior infielder Jack Rickheim. On the very next pitch, junior infielder Tyler Shulman tied the score at three runs apiece with his two-RBI single to center.

Both teams then got strong relief pitching performances across the next four innings, so after nine innings of play, the score still sat at 3-3.

In extras, Dartmouth swiftly tacked on a run off of a fielder’s choice, but the Big Green saw its lead vanish as quickly as it appeared when senior infielder Jordan Kang hit an RBI single in the bottom of the frame.

In the 12th inning, Dartmouth freshman outfielder Henry Murray — who entered the game to pinch hit in the 1oth — hit a two-RBI single to put his team on top 6-4, which ended up being the final score after a scoreless bottom of the inning.

Harvard 7, Dartmouth 6

Sitting on the brink of being swept in Ivy play for the first time this season, the Crimson was desperate for something to go its way.

After the team gave up an RBI single in the top of the first inning, Harvard’s prayers were answered by its seemingly constant hero, captain Gio Colasante. The two-way star — who is currently the front-runner for Ivy League Player of the Year — crushed a two-run home run in the bottom of the first, giving the Crimson some momentum to go along with a 2-1 lead.

The score sat unchanged until the fourth inning, when it all broke down for Harvard.

The Big Green had its biggest inning of the weekend in the top of the fourth, when it tacked on five total runs thanks to two extra-base hits and two Crimson errors. After running through its entire lineup from end-to-end, Dartmouth ended the half-inning with a monstrous 6-2 lead.

Harvard responded with an RBI single from Rickheim in the fifth, but the score remained 6-3 in favor of the visitors heading into the bottom of the eighth.

In the bottom of the eighth, however, the Crimson put together a sequence that could potentially come back to save its season down the line.

Shulman opened the inning with a hit-by-pitch, quickly followed by a walk from G. Colasante. After a strikeout recorded the first out, a second walk to Kang loaded the bases for Stone, whose heroic three-RBI double tied things at 6-6. Smith’s go-ahead RBI single put Harvard on top 7-6, and after sophomore Luca Alagheband’s three-out save, the Crimson nabbed the narrow victory.

The win propelled Harvard back into a tie for fourth place in the Ancient Eight, while a loss would have kept the team in seventh place with just seven conference games left on its regular-season schedule.

With every game now more important than ever, and being in a similar spot to where it was at this point last season, the team is focused on individual performance as the season comes to a close.

“I think we’ve always got self-belief,” Stone said. “This club’s identity has always been toughness, and we were able to battle back last year and win our way into the tournament.”

“We take every game like a championship at this point, with full energy and focus on each game at a time,” the New Milford, Conn., native added.

The Crimson continues its season on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. EDT, where it will make up its home game against Brown that was rained out on April 5. The team will stay in Cambridge this weekend to face the University of Pennsylvania, with a senior day doubleheader on Saturday followed by a single game on Sunday, all of which will be streamed on ESPN+.

— Staff writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at [email protected].