Ketchmark's Two Homers Trumped by UNF Walk-Off Blast

Thursday, March 24

Jacksonville, Fla.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

4-11

North Florida

15-10

Dartmouth

North Florida

Ketchmark's Two Homers Trumped by UNF Walk-Off Blast

3/24/2016 5:33:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Keith Skinner deposited a 1-0 offering over the right-field fence for a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to lift North Florida to an 8-6 victory over the visiting Dartmouth Big Green on Thursday afternoon. Skinner's four-bagger was the fourth Osprey long ball of the game, allowing UNF (15-10) to sweep the two-game series from Dartmouth (4-11), which got two home runs of its own from junior Michael Ketchmark.

While Skinner's round-tripper was his only hit of the day, Corbin Olmstead of the Ospreys matched Ketchmark's two homers and three RBIs. Olmstead, the UNF designated hitter, also was credited with the victory on the mound to improve to 2-0 for getting the final out in the top of the ninth when the Big Green had runners on the corners with two down. Chris Thibideau had the other home run for UNF, a solo shot to tie the game at six in the sixth, to go with his single and double as he and Christian Diaz each had three hits, two runs and an RBI for the hosts.

Ketchmark enjoyed his first career multi-homer game, and the first for Dartmouth in nearly two years, while driving in half of the team's runs. Freshman Mike Brown led the Big Green with three hits from the bottom of the order while junior leadoff hitter Ben Socher had a pair of knocks in the 11-hit attack.

Dartmouth, which never trailed until Skinner's walk-off blast, took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the third. Adam Gauthier reached base on a throwing error to start the inning, took second on a passed ball and went to third on a Brown single. Socher then dropped a single into left-center to score Gauthier.

In the bottom half, UNF put its own unearned run on the board as the inning began with an error and a walk. After a sacrifice bunt, Diaz hit a chopper to short to bring home the tying run.

Ketchmark wasted no time in reclaiming the lead for the Big Green, belting the first pitch of the fourth well over the fence in left field. Singles by Joe Purritano and Steffen Torgersen set up RBI knocks by Gauthier and Brown as Dartmouth claimed a 4-1 lead, knocking Osprey starter Bryan Baker from the mound in the process.

Olmstead matched Ketchmark with his own long ball to left-center to lead off the Osprey half of the fourth. Two outs later, North Florida got consecutive singles before a grounder was booted and thrown away for two errors, allowing another unearned run to cross the plate, cutting the Big Green lead down to one at 4-3.

In the fifth, Ketchmark struck again, blasting a two-run shot not far from where his first four-bagger landed, boosting the Dartmouth advantage back to three at 6-3.

Apparently Ketchmark said “Simon says” to Olmstead as the right-handed slugger belted his own two-run homer in the bottom half, his eighth of the year, ending the afternoon for Dartmouth hurler Clay Chatham.

North Florida ripped another long ball in the sixth, this time by Clay Thibideau on the first pitch thrown by reliever Chris Burkholder. But when the Ospreys put the next two hitters on base, Burkholder buckled down and retired the next three hitters to preserve the 6-6 tie through six innings.

In the eighth, UNF threatened to take the lead when Thibideau led off with a double into the left-field corner. But after a bunt moved him to third, Patrick Ervin hit into some tough luck as his liner was speared by second baseman Dustin Shirley, who fired to third to double off Thibideau to end the threat.

The Big Green tried to work a little two-out rally in the ninth as Brown and Socher singled with two gone, putting runners on the corners. But Olmstead, who took the mound to face Socher, got ahead of Shirley in the count and induced a weak grounder to second to end the inning.

Sophomore reliever Sam Fichthorn (0-1), in his second inning of work, retired the first batter in the ninth, but Diaz collected his third hit before Skinner played the hero by belting his second home run of the season for UNF's fourth walk-off win this season.

Chatham surrendered five runs, three earned, on six hits, a walk and two strikeouts over his 4.1 frames on the bump, but his defense did not help with four errors behind him. Baker lasted just 3.2 innings for the Ospreys, allowing seven hits that led to four runs, three earned, while fanning four.

Dartmouth will start a three-game series at South Florida (12-10) on Friday at 6 p.m. Freshman RHP Cole O'Connor (0-0, 4.00) will start on the mound for the Big Green against Bull right-hander Phoenix Sanders (1-1, 2.40). All three games this weekend will be streamed live; visit GoUSFBulls.com for information on how to subscribe and catch all of the action.

Notes: The last Dartmouth hitter with two homers in a game was Nick Lombardi '15, who hit two in an 8-2 win over Yale on April 12, 2014 ... Big Green head coach Bob Whalen started five freshmen in the field, including Matt Feinstein who reached base for the ninth straight game ... Ketchmark extended his hitting streak to seven games, boasting a .375 average in that span to raise his season average 86 points in the process.