Big Green Teams
Lacrosse Tearn Wins Fifth Consecutive League Title as Baseball Team Loses to Holy Cross During Week-End
A s I PAUSE to take pen in hand this beautiful mid-May afternoon in Hanover, it seems hard to believe that another sports season is about to sing its swan song. But that's the way I've found things go in Hanover, and as much as we all would like to, it's one place where you definitely can't have your cake and eat it, too.
I say that the spring sports season is about to sing its swan song. As a matter of fact the baseball team has eight more games to play, the track team has two more meets, the lacrosse team one more game, and the tennis team is now in the process of a four-game trip down country. But for a grand old senior, who is holding on as long as he can but expects to be pulled out of this so-pleasant environment at any time, the swan song season is really at hand.
I'm beating the dead line this month as a matter of necessity, so I can only report to you on the outcome of the Holy Cross baseball game which was played on Memorial Field on May 16th. Holy Cross won by 4 runs to 1, in a game marred by Dartmouth errors and hard luck.
I'd like to say that Jeff Tesreau's hard- hitting baseball team isn't on top of the league at this writing; but unfortunately there is the little item of a Princeton team. The Tigers this morning are on top of the heap (6 won, 1 lost) and are, of course, the team to beat. Theoretically and quite possibly the Big Green (3 won, 3 lost) has a chance to make up the current deficit between now and the end of the season; but it's best not to paint any rosy pictures- just say that it will be an uphill pull all the way with plenty of help needed from the rest of the league.
As Jim Farley told you a month ago, the pitching was the big item that could make or break this club. And that has been the story to date. The pitching has been up and down; so has the team.
After returning from the not-so-successful curtailed southern trip, the team settled down and looked like a real pennant threat. Bill Parmer, a senior right-hander, went the distance in fine fashion against Lafayette in a non-league game which the Indians won without much trouble, 6-1. Then down in Philly on April 18 Will Gray, sore arm and all, struck out 15 Penn batters to set a new league strikeout record as the Green whipped Penn, 11-3, in the first league contest.
A week later it was the first of four doubleheaders, this one with Columbia at New York. The Lions came from behind in the first of the games, abbreviated to seven innings, to defeat Gray and sopho- more Snook Hughes, who made his first appearance in a varsity uniform. The score was 3-2. But Parmer came back in the nightcap with another fine performance and the vaunted Green hitting attack functioned impressively for an easy 11-3 win.
The Hanover season opened in a rather inauspicious way on April 30 when the title-defending Princeton team came into town for a doubleheader. Both games were thrilling, though long, and, I'm sorry to state, Princeton took them both by one- run margins, 7-6 and 6-5. The highly- touted Roy Talcott was the winning pitcher in both games, but he came very close to losing the first when the home forces staged a four-run rally in the last inning to pull within one run of the champs. Dixie Daniels, junior right fielder and slugger, tripled with the bases loaded to give the large crowd hopes, but as the possible tying run he died on third. The Tigers came from behind in somewhat the same fashion in the second, only .more successfully. Gray, making his last start before entering the Army, tired in the fifth and Parmer came on to get credit for his second loss of the day. The Tigers hacked away at a sizeable Dartmouth lead, tied the score in the seventh, and then won the game in the extra-inning eighth.
That Princeton doubleheader was right in the midst of "comprehensives" and just before the underclassmen took their finals. So from April go 'til May 9 there was no diamond activity at all for the men of Tesreau. And to add insult to injury further inactivity was caused when the team was rained out of a doubleheader at New Haven on the 9th. The latest report from the DCAC says that every effort will be made by Dartmouth to re-schedule these important league games. Nothing definite has been done yet, but Mr. McCarter is on his way to Boston as I write this to attend a league meeting.
If nothing else the six-inning 1-1 tie that the Green and Elis played to before the heavens opened up at least gave Coach Tesreau an idea where his second starting pitcher may come from. Making his first start for Dartmouth, Hughes, who was the losing pitcher in. a relief role at Columbia, tied up the Elis effectively for six innings. Jeff is counting upon him heavily for both league games and non-league games from here in.
And finally in the world of baseball I report with more pleasure a 9-4 win over Penn here in Hanover on the 13th. Once again it was Parmer all the way, Bill getting his second league win. He was pounded hard by the visiting Quakers and he was wild at times, but the great Dartmouth power struck on two occasions, enabling Sheriff Bill to take things fairly easily. Sophomore Bob Mara and senior Chet Jones each drove in two runs, and just about every man in the batting order was hitting the ball hard.
At this writing the Big Green has finished half of its league season and is standing in a three-way tie for third place. Princeton leads with the aforementioned 6-1 record. Harvard is second with 3-3, and then Penn, Yale, and Dartmouth all with 500 averages. It is definitely uphill from here in, but if the pitching can hold up over the nine-inning route and Harvard and Yale can do their part by knocking off Princeton, Dartmouth has a good chance to squeeze in.
It's a busy two weeks from now until the 27 th. Holy Cross and Brown came up in that order in non-league games, then a doubleheader with Harvard here in Hanover, and a home and home series with Cornell the last week in May. Add to this the playoff of the postponed doubleheader with Yale and you can easily see that Jeff and his boys have plenty on their hands until the summer session opens.
There's not much to report from other fields. The lacrosse team was breezing along in great shape after its southern trip until it met Yale at New Haven on the 9th. Joe Wilder and his teammates received a rude upset at the hands of an Eli team, 5-4. Previously the team had taken care of MIT, Tufts, Williams, and New Hamp- shire in New England League tilts. Harvard in the Reunion Week-end game was the final opponent on the schedule, losing by a 3-point margin, thereby leaving the cup for league honors in Dartmouth hands for the 5th consecutive year.
The tennis team has seen little action at all, its one start ending rather disastrously. They lost to Harvard 6-3 in the only home athletic event of Commencement week-end. Captain Hal Eckardt and Larry Austin provided the three points by winning their singles matches and pairing to win the number one doubles. These two men repre- sented Dartmouth this week at the New England championships in Middletown, Conn. They put up a great showing in the doubles, losing a five-set final to the Harvard combine they defeated earlier in the month at Hanover.
The golf team, hampered by a late start and lack of practice, bowed out of the New England playoffs rather quietly on the first day, Holy Cross and Yale going into the playoff round. Dartmouth's medal total was considerably higher than those flashed by the 1941 championship squad. But the 1941 team had been on the links for a month.
The track team has done nothing at all since the last issue except to take a first, second, and third in the Penn Relays. Harry Hillman's crack two-mile relay team anchored by Don Burnham '44 and sparked on this occasion by junior Bob Williams, edged out the favored Indiana in this event. Dick Whiting '44 and Paul Hanlon '43 were other members of the team. Burnham was edged by the great Campbell Kane of Indiana in the last yards of the four-mile relay in what was called a feature of the games. The Big Green representatives added a third in the distance medley relay.
That's about all for now except to add a word from Director of Athletics William H. McCarter. He told me that the Green this summer would have field teams in baseball, lacrosse, golf, and tennis, and would have intramural track. The schedules have not been made up as yet because of obvious difficulties. More on that will be forthcoming as soon as possible.
The physical education department will, of course, start its new program that requires three full hours a week on the part of freshmen and sophomores. All for national physical fitness and preparedness. Keep 'Em Flying. It's the spirit of '42.
CAPTAIN AND CUP Dartmouth lacrosse captain Joe Wilder '42,of Ferndale, Md. and New England Inter-collegiate League trophy, won for five successive years under Coach Dent.
FAST PLAY 5th inning, Pennsylvania game at Hanover,May 13. After Barsczc (Penn. 2b) reachedIst on fielder's choice, Miller (3b) came tobat and drove a foul which Bob Mara '44is shown catching squarely on Ist basewhile Barsczc scrambles back.
GREEN COURT STAR JOINS NAVY Gus Broberg '41, who made basketball history while a Dartmouth undergraduate, is congratulated on being accepted for Naval Aviation Flight Training by. Lt. Comdr. Albert F.Rice '18, USNR, senior member of the Cadet Selection Board of the Third Naval District.Broberg will begin his training at the Navy's new aviation school at the University ofNorth Carolina and while there will probably represent the Navy in sports.
