BASEBALL

The Dartmouth baseball team in capturing a well-deserved slice of the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League title tied with Navy and Columbia. The outcome of the league race was still in doubt until early June when Army upset the front-running Midshipmen, forcing them into a tie with the Lions and Indians, all posting 6-3 records.

As last reported the Indians had three league contests late in May which were all "must" affairs. Harvard proved to be the thorn in the Indians' side as the Cantabs exploded for a big eighth inning and toppled Dartmouth 7-5. A few days later, however, the Green rebounded to defeat Princeton 6-2.

And at Ithaca on May 25, the Indians put the finishing touches to its league campaign with a 2-0 victory over Cornell. Scott Creelman pitched a superb game, giving up only three hits and striking out fifteen. He was never in real trouble. The Green scored its first run in the fourth inning as catcher Dick Horton tripled home Ken McGruther, who had reached on a single. The second run was added in the seventh without benefit of a hit. Horton reached on an error, was sacrified to second, and scored on another Cornell miscue.

Against non-league competition, the Indians were beaten by Colgate 5-2, and Vermont 6-1, but they blanked New Hampshire 3-0 and upset NCAA tourney-bound Holy Cross 6-3. The Crusader game, the season's finale, revenged an earlier 2-1 defeat. Left-hander Bob McArthur went seven innings and gave up three runs and six hits. He was relieved by the team's ace fireman, Ted Friel. The Indians scored four runs in the fourth inning on four singles and three Holy Cross errors, one in the fifth on a suicide squeeze play, and one in the seventh on a triple by Ken Lapine and a long flyball.

Overall the Green compiled a 14-15 record for the season, but against northern competition (subtracting those early games played in the south during spring vacation), the team had an 11-8 mark. Dick Horton carried the big stick as he finished with a .322 average. Mike Bloom was also well up with a .290 average. Captain Mike Nyquist led the team for the third straight year in the R.B.I. department with 20.

In addition to winning the Eastern title team members also gained individual honors. The Princeton A.A. trophy went to Steve Dichter for the most stolen bases. Scott Creelman had the lowest earned run average, 2.03, in the league. Over the season he struck out 91 batters in 80 innings pitched.

Second baseman Henry Ota of Torrance, Calif., has been elected captain of the 1964 team. A 20-year-old history major, Ota is a two-year veteran and is regarded as the best pivot man at Dartmouth in recent years. With a number of other key starters also returning, next spring could be another banner year for the Indian nine.