Spring Break Concludes with Three Games at No. 26 UCF

	DARTMOUTH BIG GREEN (8-5)	#26 UCF KNIGHTS (18-4)
March 24-26, 2017 • Jay Bergman Field (3,600) • Orlando, Fla.

THE SERIES
DARTMOUTH	THE CITADEL
Notes \| Stats \| Twitter	Notes \| Stats \| Twitter
March 24 • 6:30 p.m. Video: UCFKnights.tv \| Live Stats
RHP Jack Fossand (0-4, 4.05)	RHP Robby Howell (4-0, 2.01)
March 25 • 6:30 p.m. Video: UCFKnights.tv \| Live Stats
RHP Michael Danielak (3-0, 2.33)	RHP Juan Pimentel (5-0, 1.53)
March 26 • 2 p.m. Video: UCFKnights.tv \| Live Stats
RHP Jackson Bubala (0-1, 8.59)	LHP Joseph Sheridan (3-2, 4.35)

Final Three in Florida
To complete its third trip to the state of Florida this season, Dartmouth has a three-game set at 26th-ranked UCF for its second series against a ranked team this year. Three weeks ago, the Big Green took two of three at then-No. 17 Miami, and now would like nothing better than a repeat performance, though Dartmouth has never had three wins over ranked teams in a single season.

Spring Break in Review
•   Dartmouth has gone 4-3 thus far during its spring break, splitting four games at The Citadel and bookending wins over Division III teams around a loss at Bethune-Cookman.
•   Senior Michael Ketchmark has been the hottest Big Green hitter during the trip, hitting .517 with five doubles, a homer, seven runs and nine RBIs.
•   Also hitting at least .400 over the seven games are Matt Feinstein (.429) and Trevor Johnson (.400).
•   As a team, Dartmouth has hit .342/.425/.471 this trip and enters this series 12th in the nation in batting (.323) and 11th in OBP (.420).
•   Cole O'Connor, who has walked exactly one batter and struck out exactly two in each of his four starts this season, earned his first career victory in a 7-2 win at The Citadel to start spring break.
•   Johnson led off that win with a home run, his second straight game of going yard as the first batter of the contest.
•   Dartmouth suffered a 10-inning loss in the third game with the Bulldogs. In each of the last two seasons, the Green were 1-2 in extra-inning affairs.
•   Senior Adam Gauthier hit his first career home run in the 10-9 triumph to salvage a split at The Citadel while Ketchmark collected four hits.
•   Michael Danielak earned his third victory in as many starts in the win, striking out eight in 7.1 innings, and junior Marc Bachman recorded the final out for his first career save.
•   Dartmouth put up 19 runs in a slugfest win over Chicago, its most since scoring 22 against Yale two years ago. Ketchmark had a career-high five hits with three doubles and a homer.
•   The Big Green's first four losses this year were all by one run until Bethune-Cookman hung a 9-2 defeat on Dartmouth this past Wednesday.

Overall Record vs. UCF
•   The only other time these two teams met was a three-game set to open Dartmouth's 2011 season.
•   The Knights won the first two by a combined score of 17-2 before the Big Green took the finale in 10 innings, 8-6, scoring once in the ninth with two outs and two more in the 10th.
•   Dartmouth has played seven of the eight schools in the American Athletic Conference with a record of 9-28 against them. The only school the Big Green haven't played is Memphis.

Scouting the Knights
•   At 18-4, its safe to say that UCF is pretty good. All but four of those games have come at home, where the Knights are 16-2, with both losses coming against Florida State.
•   Five regulars in the lineup are hitting at least .300, led by Luke Hamblin at .375 with a .494 OBP.
•   UCF has 21 homers in 22 games, five by Rylan Thomas and four more by Eli Putnam, while Kyle Marsh leads the squad with 14 extra-base hits and matches Thomas with 21 RBIs.
•   The Knights like to run having stolen 48 bases, fourth in the country, with Hamblin swiping 10, and Putnam and Matthew Mika nine apiece.
•   The pitching staff boasts the seventh-best ERA (2.50) in the nation and is in the top 20 in both strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.41, 12th) and walks per nine innings (2.77, 17th).

Probable Starting Pitchers
•   The Big Green will send RHP Jack Fossand (0-1, 4.05) to the mound for his second start of the season, having lasted just 3.2 innings at The Citadel last week. He will match up against RHP Robby Howell (4-0, 2.01) who holds hitters to a .208 average and has 29 strikeouts in 31.1 innings.
•   Game two will feature a pair of pitchers who have won every start thus far. Senior RHP Michael Danielak (3-0, 2.33) toes the slab for Dartmouth, RHP Juan Pimentel (5-0, 1.53) for the Knights.
•   Senior RHP Jackson Bubala (0-1, 8.59) will try to build off his two hitless innings of relief on Sunday, while LHP Joseph Sheridan (3-2, 4.35) makes his fourth start and ninth appearance of the season.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth returns to New England, but remains on the road with a mid-week matchup at Quinnipiac on March 29 before opening Ivy play at Penn (April 1) and Columbia (April 2).

Finishing Spring Trip at .500
With an 8-5 record and three games remaining during spring break, Dartmouth is guaranteed to own a winning percentage of at least .500 by the time this trip ends. For Big Green head coach Bob Whalen, now in his 28th season, this will be just the eighth time he will have accomplished this feat with all games on the road or at neutral sites. The last two teams to do so were the 2011 (9-4) and 2013 (11-1) squads, the only two in Dartmouth history to win at least 30 games in a season.

Bats in Full Swing
The Big Green bats have pounded the ball to the tune of a .323 average through the first 13 games, the 12th-best mark in the country. In Dartmouth history, only three teams have hit for a higher average for an entire season, with all three coming during the height of “gorilla ball” — 1997 (.338), 1998 (.328) and 2001 (.324).

Ketch Him If You Can
Although his eight-game hit streak came to an end on Thursday, senior Michael Ketchmark has been on a tear of late. The first baseman was 12-for-15 over one three-game stretch, and has 13 hits in his last 20 at-bats (.650) with four doubles, a homer, five runs and nine RBIs over the last five contests. He ranks among the top 20 nationally in batting (.434, 18th), doubles per game (0.54, 15th), hits per game (1.77, 13th) and on-base percentage (.524, 20th), and is 33rd in slugging (.717). Ketchmark, along with freshman Trevor Johnson, have also reached base in each of the 13 games this season. Not bad for a guy that had a career .235 average in over 300 at-bats entering the season.

Starting the Season Just Fein
Ketchmark isn't the only Big Green player with a potent bat. Sophomore Matt Feinstein collected his team-leading eighth multi-hit game in the 9-1 win on March 23 with three knocks. His .421 average ranks 32nd among Division I players, and he is in the top 10 in hits per game (1.85, eighth). He and classmate Mike Brown enter the UCF series on a seven-game hit streak as well.

Pitching Staff Catches Its Breath
Dartmouth pitchers began the season on a tear, posting a collective 1.88 ERA that ranked third nationally through the first seven games. But a four-game stretch in which the Big Green gave up a total of 37 runs (though they split the four games) ballooned the ERA above 4.00. That ended on Thursday as six pitchers combined to give up just one unearned run in a 9-1 win over Division III Southern Maine, dropping the team ERA to 3.77. Only once in the past 40 years has Dartmouth had an ERA as low as that — 2.75 in 2013.

Fichthorn in the Side
Junior Sam Fichthorn was credited with the win over Southern Maine in a predetermined three-inning start, just the second victory of his career and his first start in almost 23 months. It was also his longest outing since April 14, 2015 when he threw three frames in a start against UMass Lowell. Dartmouth won that game as well, 6-5, though he did not get a decision.

19 Runs Most in Almost Two Years
Dartmouth got into a shootout with the University of Chicago on March 21 and found itself tied at 11 with the Maroons entering the eighth. That's when the Big Green hung an eight-spot on the board to run away with the victory, scoring their most runs since beating Yale on April 11, 2015, by a final of 22-10. The eight-run inning was also Dartmouth's largest since tallying all nine runs of a 9-0 win in the sixth against Harvard on April 29, 2014.

Five-Hit Game
During the 19-11 win over Chicago, senior Michael Ketchmark set career highs with five hits, 11 total bases and six RBIs. The last Big Green hitter with five knocks in a game was Dustin Shirley at Princeton on April 2, 2016. And the last player with at least six RBIs? That would be Dustin Selzer against Columbia on April 8, 2012 with seven. In case you are wondering, the school record for RBIs in a game is … hold on to your hats … 14 set by Scott Shirrell '04 against Harvard on May 4, 2002.

Danielak Three for Three
Senior Michael Danielak has won all three of his starts this season with the most recent a 10-9 triumph at The Citadel on March 19. In his first three seasons, the 28th-round pick of the Pirates in last year's MLB Draft had won just four games. And with his first of eight strikeouts (one shy of his career high) against the Bulldogs, Danielak recorded the 100th punchout of his career.

Ivy League Rookie of the Week
Freshman Trevor Johnson was happy to return to the field after an 11-day layoff for winter exams. The rookie lit up Citadel pitching for a .500 average (6-for-12) with a homer, five walks, five runs and a pair of RBIs while posting a stellar .667 OBP. Those numbers were plenty good enough to earn him the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor on March 20, giving Dartmouth at least one such award in each of the last 12 seasons. No other school in the league has a streak of more than four years.

Gauthier the Gauthiest
I have no idea what that means, other than senior Adam Gauthier hit his first career home run in the 10-9 win over The Citadel. He rocketed the first pitch of his 193rd career at-bat (over five seasons) over the fence in left-center for a solo shot. Not only was it his first four-bagger, but ended a drought of 115 at-bats without an extra-base hit. No word on whether or not he got the ball back.

First Win for O'Connor
Sophomore Cole O'Connor had some rotten luck as a freshman, posting a 3.12 ERA in 10 appearances and eight starts, but going winless as well with six no-decisions, even though Dartmouth won his last four starts. In his third start of this season, and 11th of his career, he finally got a W to his credit against The Citadel on March 16. The right-hander yielded two runs on five hits and a walk with two strikeouts over six innings as the Big Green cruised to a 7-2 triumph.

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