Baseball's Sweet Moments of May

Though there wasn't a repeat performance of 1987's Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League Championship season in 1988, the team made an impressive stretch run, winning ten of its last 13 games and taking fourth place in the EIBL. May was the most productive month for the Green, which swept a doubleheader with Princeton and split twin bills with Columbia and Cornell. The sweetest moment of May, though, came as Dartmouth finished league action with a doubleheader sweep of arch rival Harvard, 9-3 and 4-1. The wins marked the first time since 1970 that the College took two from the Crimson in Cambridge.

This success should carry over into 1989. Center fielder Bobby Jones '89 was chosen first-team All New England and All Ivy. Jones set two Dartmouth season records with his 55 hits and 20 doubles, and he led the team in four other categories: batting average (.379), runs scored (33), and home runs (6).

First baseman and pitcher Mark Johnston '90 was a second team All New England selection. Johnson batted .444 in the EIBL, finishing second by a mere .012 to Yale's Al Kolesar for the batting title.

Junior pitcher Chris Hildenbrand (4-2 and a 1.89 ERA in EIBL play) and junior catcher Brendan Lesch (.346 batting average, 22 runs batted in) will provide leadership for a team that graduated only four seniors.

Those seniors will be sorely missed, however. Captain and designated hitter John Hommeyer was named to the second team for both the All Ivy and All EIBL squads. Second baseman Rob Combi was named honorable mention All EIBL after hitting. 325 in league play. Outfielder Chris Bunker played in all 40 games this season, batting. 336 and driving in 29 runs. Pitcher Kevin Griffin notched five wins for the Green and tallied the lowest ERA (2.40) of the pitching staff.