Harvard answered in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two runs on back-to-back sacrifice flies. Junior Mark Mager led off the inning with a single and senior Joe Llanes followed with a double to left-center, moving Mager to third. Junior Nick Carter then hit a long fly ball to center field, scoring Mager and moving Llanes to third. The next batter, junior catcher Brian Lentz, drove Llanes home with a sacrifice fly to left, giving the Crimson a 2-1 lead.

After giving up the run in the first, Birtwell found his groove, allowing only four hits (all singles) and no runs through the next five innings.

The first game of an Ivy League doubleheader is only seven innings. As a result, Harvard entered the game's last regulation inning with a 2-1 lead. Birtwell struck out Dartmouth senior Mike Levy to begin the inning, bringing Harvard within two outs of taking game one. But the Big Green would not go away.

Dartmouth junior first baseman Mike Mileusnic doubled into the right-field gap to put a runner in scoring position. Senior third baseman Brian Nickerson followed up with a laser-beam shot over second baseman Faiz Shakir's glove to tie the game at 2-2. Nickerson, who ended up with a double on the play, had proved himself on Saturday to be a clutch performer. With two-outs in the eighth inning, trailing 5-2 in Saturday's second game, Nickerson hit a three-run shot over the fence in left field to tie the ballgame. Coach Walsh knew that Nickerson was a dangerous hitter and talked with Birtwell after Mileusnic's double.

"Coach told me to pitch around him, but honestly, I just made a mistake," Birtwell said. "The second it left my hand, I said to myself, 'ah no!'. It's just one of those things in the game of the baseball."

Birtwell got himself out of the inning without allowing more damage. Harvard failed to score in the bottom half of the seventh inning, extending the contest into extra innings. Neither team threatened in the eighth inning, but in the ninth, senior Joe Llanes hit a shot to left field that looked like a sure homerun off his bat. The wind, blowing hard to the right, severely knocked down the ball, allowing Shirrell to make the catch at the warning track. The home run would have given Harvard the victory, 3-2.

In the top of the tenth, Dartmouth finally got to Birtwell. With one-out, Derek Draper laid down a surprise bunt that rolled along the third base line, remaining in fair territory. Draper had already reached first base by the time Harvard third-baseman Nick Carter unhappily scooped up the no-longer-rolling baseball. Josh Cushman pinch ran for Draper and scored on junior shortstop Matt Klentak's double to right-center. Klentak scored an insurance-run on sophomore Jason Dacosta's base-hit to right.

Harvard's Lentz, Trey Hendricks, and Faiz Shakir went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the tenth to give Dartmouth the win. Big Green pitcher Tim Grant pitched all ten innings, allowing only two runs on five hits, outdueling Birtwell in the end.