Diamond Dust

Right out front ... congratulations to the Dartmouth baseball team (23-13 overall, 14-4 Ivy League) for clinching the Red Rolfe Division of the Ivy League yesterday with a doubleheader sweep at Harvard while Yale was dropping two games to Brown. Dartmouth came into the afternoon with a 2.5-game lead over the Bulldogs and now sits 4.5 up with two two play.

The Big Green has a one-game lead over Lou Gehrig Division champion Columbia in the standings and if it can hold on to that today (Dartmouth has another twinbill with Harvard at Red Rolfe while the Lions have two games at Penn) the three-game Ivy League championship series will be held in Hanover next weekend.

It would be a ton of fun to wrap up the Green-White scrimmage next Saturday and then wander 50 yards over to Red Rolfe Field to watch a doubleheader between Dartmouth and Columbia. The three-game series – whether it's in New York or Hanover – will finish with a single game on Sunday if necessary.

A nod also to the Dartmouth men's lacrosse team, which knocked off No. 11 Princeton yesterday, 11-9. Former tailback Chad Gaudet won 12-of-22 faceoffs to help the Big Green set the tone.

The NFL draft wraps up today with Brown receiver Paul Raymond the Ivy League's best hope for hearing his name called. It's a slim hope but expect Raymond, along with several other players, to make it into NFL camps. (Dartmouth linebacker Justin Cottrell and offensive lineman Ben Goeke hope to be among those invited to camps.) If an Ivy Leaguer isn't chosen it will mark just the second time since 2000 the Ancient Eight has been overlooked. Here are the Ivy draft picks since 2000 with the round in which they were chosen:

• 2007 - LB Zak DeOssie (Brown) Giants, 4
• 2006 - OT Kevin Boothe (Cornell) Raiders, 6
• 2005 - QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (Harvard) Rams, 7
• 2004 - TE Nate Lawrie (Yale) Bucs, 6
• 2004 - TE Casey Cramer (Dartmouth) Bucs, 7
• 2003 - None
• 2002 - OT Jeff Hatch (Penn) Giants, 3
• 2001 - LG Dennis Norman (Princeton) Seahawks 7
• 2001 - S Than Merrill (Yale), Bucs 7
• 2001 - TE Eric Johnson (Yale) 49ers, 7
• 2000 -LB Isaiah Kacyvenski (Harvard) Seahawks, 4

Incoming recruit Pat Lahey of North Andover, Mass., and Brooks School will join fellow recruit Nick Schwieger in Massachusetts' annual Shriners Football Classic. The Eagle Tribune has a mention of Lahey's being named to the team.

A Pittsburgh Tribune-Review listing Shady Side Academy seniors headed to college includes mention of Dartmouth quarterback recruit Dan Rooney. The story notes that over the last four years, no fewer than 20-of-28 graduating seniors from the school have gone on to college football. That's a reminder about the quality of Western Pennsylvania football and testament to the Shady Side coaches, who apparently have kept the game fun for their players.

It's now official. The FCS (I-AA) playoffs are expanding from 16 to 20 teams. Now if only the Ivy League presidents would do the right thing and allow the conference's football players to enjoy the same privilege as every other athlete in the Ivy League and go on to the postseason.