West Haven, Conn.
The contest was scheduled to break the teams’ tie atop the division following the regular season. It ended with Michael Ketchmark’s fly out and runners on second and third base, the Bulldogs rejoicing in a leaping, shouting mass and the anguished Big Green players drifting in various directions before somberly gathering on the outfield grass.
“I gave it the best I could,” said Ketchmark, a junior who fouled off five pitches during that final showdown, three with two strikes. “It was a good battle and I was guessing fastball and hoping that I could get a short, compact swing on it.”
Yale advances to next weekend’s best-of-three Ivy League championship series at Princeton. Dartmouth, which won the 2009 and 2010 Ivy titles, concludes the season 18-25 and will soon lose five seniors to graduation, including ace pitcher Duncan Robinson, who’s expected to be selected in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft.
Yale “had some clutch at-bats,” Robinson said. “If they don’t hit a couple of ground balls in certain spots during the (eighth inning), it could have been a very different game.”
Dartmouth stranded two runners during the first inning, but in the second, two singles, a sacrifice bunt and an Adam Gauthier sacrifice fly pushed Kyle Holbrook across the plate for a 1-0 lead.
Holbrook gave the visitors a 2-0 lead during the fourth inning when he mashed a solo home run over the trees in right field.
Yale’s Richard Slenker made the score 2-1 with a solo home run in the fourth, and Dartmouth’s angst only grew after what it believed to be a pair of botched calls in quick succession. Robinson grabbed a come-backer and threw to shortstop Thomas Roulis at second base, but the umpire there ruled his foot was off the bag.
Roulis’ subsequent throw to first appeared to beat the runner by a step, but that ruling also went Yale’s way. A single up the middle then scored a run for a 2-2 tie.
“I think we got him by a half-step, and I could have sworn I saw Rou on the bag at second,” Ketchmark said. “But human error is part of the game … and we can’t let one play or bad call affect us.”
Said Robinson: “The throw was a little wider than I would have liked, but there was no doubt in my mind that Roulis dragged his foot across the bag. It changed the inning, but you try to pitch around it.”
The next run occurred during Yale’s fifth at-bat. A deep fly ball caused retreating left fielder Ben Socher to turn one way and then the other before it landed behind him. That runner moved to third on a ground out and scored when a soft line drive fell in front of Socher, who appeared to pull up when he might have made the catch.
Dartmouth produced a 3-3 tie during the sixth inning. Ketchmark reached on a throwing error and scored on a Thomas Roulis double.
Dartmouth’s Joe Puritano, a senior designated hitter who’s struggled at times this spring, put his team up, 4-3, with a solo home run in the eighth inning. That blast knocked Yale starter Scott Politz from the game.
“That was exactly what we needed out of a senior leader who started here for four years,” Ketchmark said. “At that point, with Dunc on the mound, I thought that was all we needed for him to get us through.”
Robinson delivered a strikeout to begin the bottom of the eighth. But Yale singled with two strikes, then doubled and had runners at second and third. A ground ball was hit to Ketchmark at first base, the horsehide bouncing several times on a sopping, natural grass infield. The Texan fielded the hopper cleanly and his subsequent throw beat the runner home, but the toss was in the dirt and the run scored.
“The ball was wet, but it was wet for everyone out here, and there’s just no excuse for not getting the ball all the way to the plate,” Ketchmark said.
Said coach Bob Whalen: “The kid would never make an excuse, and I have enough respect for him not to make one for him.”
The next ball in play was a chopper to Roulis at shortstop. The senior fielded it on the run, but when he moved to throw home, he realized the runner had taken off on contact and that there was no realistic play at the plate. Meanwhile, the batter had moved far enough down the first-base line that a throw there would have also been futile.
“We had the infield up and they still hit it to a place where we couldn’t get to it in time,” Whalen said. “We were basically giving up second base, but that’s baseball.”
Dartmouth gained life in the ninth when Nick Ruppert’s one-out popup in front of the mound was dropped by Yale reliever Chasen Ford. Dustin Shirley singled to right field, Puritano flied out and the two runners each moved up a base on a wild pitch. Ketchmark’s gritty at-bat followed and the Bulldogs (18-26-1) celebrated their first division title in 21 years.
“I thought (the ninth-inning error) was maybe a sign from above,” Robinson said. “I wouldn’t want anyone else up there than Joe and Ketch after that. They did their best, but came up a bit short.
“We hate to be the team that broke the (division championship) streak, but we battled all season long and we very easily could have been out of it (last weekend) at Harvard. We battled to the very last out.”
Robinson allowed 10 hits and five runs, four earned, during 7 innings. He struck out eight Bulldogs and walked none. Beau Sulser struck out the only two batters he faced. Shirley, Puritano and Holbrook each had two hits.
“I can’t remember in four years, (Robinson) having an outing where he didn’t put us in a position to win,” said Whalen, who counts the right-hander among the best pitchers he’s coached during a long career. “I’m very proud of our team, and it’s been an awful long time that we ended a season here thinking we didn’t compete all the way to the end.
“Sometimes, it’s just not good enough.”
Notes: The game’s original 1 p.m. start was pushed back 90 minutes Friday night, but the pitcher’s mound and batter’s boxes were too soggy when that time came. A drying agent was mixed and raked into the soil and when a misty rain halted around 3 p.m., a 4 p.m. start was announced. … Slenker was hit near the face by a Robinson pitch. The hurler immediately jogged to the plate and once Slenker arose, the two slapped hands. At the next between-innings break, the public address blared Tom Petty’s Won’t Back Down. … The minimalist center-field scoreboard is operated by hand and estimated to date back at least 70 years. … The field’s grass surface is one of three in the Ivies, joining those at Harvard and Brown. The latter school is expected to soon install artificial turf, however. Yale’s field has a somewhat uncommon feature in that the first- and third-base lines are not dirt, but grass. … Saturday’s game was the third time Dartmouth was in a playoff for the division title, beating Brown in 2001 and Yale two years ago. … Robinson finished the season with a league-leading 73 strikeouts (the most by a Dartmouth pitcher in 16 years) while walking just seven.