Big Green Teams
Dartmouth Nine Trips Cornell in Commencement Thriller; Varsity-Alumni Team Wins on Following Week-End
WITH NOTHING MORE AT STAKE than the opportunity to land in a tie for third place with Yale, the Dartmouth baseball nine supplied a 1941 Commencement audience with one of the most exciting ball games in many seasons when the Big Green downed Cornell, 3-2, and knocked the I thacans out of first place in the E. I. L. race.
Junior Bill Parmer played the role of Frank Merriwell in the tense drama and few athletes have ever filled the part better than did Bill. The score going into the last of the ninth stood at 2-all when Warren Kreter worked Big Red pitcher Walt Jenkins for a base on balls. This free trip to first wrote the end to Jenkins who for eight full innings had pitched great collegiate baseball with only a two-run flurry on hits by George Sexton, Kreter and catcher John Koslowski putting him into mid-game trouble.
However, from the standpoint of Cornell it looked like a smarter gamble to call the veteran Walt Sickles into the fray, for Sickles the day before at Ithaca had limited the Indians to four hits and beaten them with complete control of the situation. This was not to be Sickles' day, though. John Koslowski sooned proved this when he bunted along the first base line so sue- cessfully that he reached first and for-warded Kreter to second. Jeff Tesreau then came through with customary brilliance when he called upon left-handed hitter Tommy West to sacrifice Kreter and Koslowski along another base. West laid down a neat bunt and was himself thrown out at first by a whisker. It was here that Tesreau called his ace card by putting Parmer at the plate in place of junior Bill Brown, third baseman. The game hung in the balance between Sickles' skill and Parmer's courage and ability. Sickles gained the first edge when a high fast one was fouled into the back stop by Parmer. The next pitch met with a better fate for the Indians when Parmer swung with everything at his disposal and rapped out a long sharp hit between left and center field that would have been good for a two bagger had not the contest been won and finished when Kreter jaunted over the plate with the winning run.
Practically all of the spectators were left limp with the finish, but still had enough strength left to swarm all over Parmer and congratulate him for his performance in the pinch. The members of the Dartmouth squad did even better when they rushed out to Parmer as he rounded third and threw him to the ground with bear hugs and terrific wallops on the back.
In every sense of the word it was just about tops in intercollegiate athletics and a fitting climax to a baseball season that was notable for its very high spots and bitter disappointments.
After the contest the Indians also did a fine thing when they elected Dick Burns, left fielder, to captain them next spring. Burns, one of the most talented baseball players in the College, has been the tough luck kid of baseball here for two years. As a sophomore he was out until midseason with a sprained ankle. This year he was forced to the sidelines after three contests with a broken ankle. And yet the lettermen saw fit to recognize his ability and qualities of leadership for another campaign and the election could not have been more popular.
In another Commencement contest, this time for the younger classes on the second week-end of events, the Dartmouth alumni-varsity nine put on a free hitting, last minute victory encounter against the Springfield (Vt.) All Stars.
Stars of the past like Ted Olsen and Chief Wonson on the mound, Osmo Linden and Charles Tesreau at first, Red Pounder at short, Pep Gray and Jack Donovan in left, George Hanna at center, Eddie Picken and George Sommers behind the plate, brought back memories of yesteryears that were so startling that it seemed as if no seasons had ever elapsed since these greats were in Dartmouth uniforms. Especially was this so since the standouts of the present—Jack Orr at second, West in right .field, freshman Don MacNeill at third-made it appear as if it was the most natural thing in the world for these men to be together on Memorial field. It was the alumni members of the lineup, too, who supplied most of the fireworks. Sommers, a much improved player even over his undergraduate days, hit a home run through the left field fence that was a corker. Pick-en also started the ninth inning rally that pulled the game out of the fire and eventually scored the ninth and tying run. Pounder, always a headsup and scrappy player as a undergraduate, was the Parmer of this tilt, for he stole home in the ninth to put across run number 10 to close the fray, 10-9, for a fitting tribute to "Jeff Tesreau Day."
Alumni who wish to receive the annual football information booklet written by Whitey Fuller '37 with a last-minute prediction on the prospects of the 1941 football squad by Coach Tuss McLaughry, may this year insure themselves a copy by writing to the DCAC, Alumni Gymnasium, on or before August 10, enclosing 25 cents in money or stamps.
(Left) IN THE "JEFF TESREAU DAY" CELEBRATION THE VETERAN DARTMOUTH COACH RECEIVES GIFT OF CHAIR FROM FORD SAYRE '33 IN BEHALF OF ALUMNI AND FRIENDS. (Right) GEORGE SOMMERS '4O, AN ALUMNI MEMBER OF THE DARTMOUTH TEAM SCORES IN GAME WITH SPRINGFIELD, WON BY THE DARTMOUTH VARSITY-ALUMNI NINE IN A THRILLING LAST INNING FINISH, 9-8.
