USF Blanks Dartmouth, 4-0

Friday, March 25

Tampa, Fla.

6:30 PM

Dartmouth College

4-12

USF

13-10

Dartmouth

USF

3/25/2016 9:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

TAMPA, Fla. — Right-hander Phoenix Sanders twirled a five-hit shutout against visiting Dartmouth on Friday night as USF handed the Big Green a 4-0 defeat in front of 552 fans at USF Baseball Stadium in a game that lasted a mere one hour and 54 minutes. Chris Chatfield homered in the fifth to break a scoreless deadlock as the Bulls (13-10) won for the third time in their last four games, while Dartmouth (4-12) dropped its third straight.

Sanders (2-1) needed just 92 pitches to complete the nine innings, facing three over the minimum. He began the game with a four-pitch walk, but that was the last free pass he issued all night. After the Big Green stranded a runner in each of the first three frames, Sanders faced the minimum over the final six thanks to three double plays behind him. He helped himself as well by striking out seven batters.

Only one Dartmouth base runner advanced past first base, that being freshman Rob Emery, who singled with one out in the second, took second on a balk and advanced to third on a grounder to short. But Sanders left him stranded there by getting the third out on strikes.

Freshman right-hander Cole O'Connor (0-1) matched zeroes with Sanders for the first four innings, allowing just two hits in that span. But in the fifth, Chatfield got a hold of a 1-0 offering and deposited it over the fence for his sixth home run of the season. Coco Montes then singled with one down and came around to score one out later on a Kevin Merrell double for a 2-0 lead.

O'Connor stayed out of trouble in the sixth and seventh, but plunked Tyler Dietrich to start the eighth. After Merrell hit into a fielder's choice, O'Connor was lifted in favor of senior Adam Charnin-Aker. Merrell stole second, but Charnin-Aker got a strikeout for out number two. USF came through with a pair of clutch hits, however, as Luke Borders and Duke Stunkel rapped out RBI singles to double the lead at 4-0.

Sanders threw 15 pitches in the ninth — his most in any inning all night — but still retired the side in order with a pair of strikeouts and a grounder to third to end the game.Both teams had just one player collect two hits with senior Joe Purritano doing so for Dartmouth and Montes for the Bulls. Junior Michael Ketchmark had his seven-game hitting streak come to an end by going 0-for-3 and being left on deck when the game ended.

O'Connor deserved better than a loss as he finished the game having yielded three runs on five hits over 7.1 innings without walking a batter and punching out three.

The two teams will continue their three-game series on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Dartmouth is scheduled to pitch the 2015 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year in Duncan Robinson (1-2, 6.00) while USF will counter with Brandon Lawson (3-0, 2.53).