UCF Invite Pits Dartmouth Against Defending Champ Florida State

Friday, March 1

Orlando, Fla.

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Louisiana Tech

Photo by: Mark Washburn

UCF Invite Pits Dartmouth Against Defending Champ Florida State

2/28/2019 1:54:00 PM | Softball

The Big Green travel to Orlando for five tough matchups

By: Mike Miezejeski

UCF INVITE – Orlando, Fla.
Mar. 1 vs. Louisiana Tech (12-3*) – 12 PM (LIVE STATS)
Mar. 1 at UCF (9-4*) – 5 PM (WATCH | LIVE STATS)
Mar. 2 vs. Toledo (4-5*) – 10 AM (LIVE STATS)
Mar. 3 vs. Toledo (4-5*) – 9:30 AM (LIVE STATS)
Mar. 3 vs. No. 1 Florida State (17-0*) – 11:30 AM (LIVE STATS)

SECOND WEEKEND IN THE SUNSHINE STATE
Dartmouth continues its season at the UCF Invite in Orlando Fla. The Big Green play two games on Friday against Louisiana Tech and the hosts, UCF. They then play a single game on Saturday against Toledo before facing the Rockets again on Sunday. The Big Green's final game of the tournament is against the defending champion and No. 1 ranked team in the country, Florida State.

HOLY CITY SHOWDOWN IN REVIEW

Dartmouth had a successful first weekend in South Carolina. The Big Green went 2-3 with a couple of strong wins and close losses.
The Big Green fell to Appalachian State to open the season, 2-1. Heather Turner and Shelby Wilkison only allowed one earned run on four hits in the circle. Morgan Martinelli doubled home a run in the seventh, but the Dartmouth stranded the tying run on third.
Dartmouth secured its first win over Charleston Southern, 5-3. Bryce West hit the first Big Green home run in the fourth and two more runs scored in the sixth. Wilkison earned the first win in the circle going five innings, giving up two earned. Madie Augusto got the save in her first collegiate appearance.
The Big Green then beat Radford, 7-0, behind two freshmen pitchers and a strong offense. Augusto picked up the win going 5.1 shutout innings with six K's. Brooke Plonka did not allow a hit in the final 1.2 innings.
It was a 7-6 loss to the College of Charleston. A big five run inning was all it took for C of C to get the win. Micah Schroder and West each drove in runs in the sixth and seventh but it was not enough.
Dartmouth finished the Showdown with a tough defeat to Iowa State, falling 12-0, in five innings.

IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Two freshmen earned Ivy League Weekly Awards. Madie Augusto was named the Ivy League Pitcher and Co-Rookie and Bryce West was named Co-Rookie of the Week.
Augusto finished the weekend with a 1.17 ERA, a win, a save, and 11 strikeouts in 12 innings.
West currently has a .357 batting average, which is the highest on the team after the weekend collecting five hits in 14 at-bats. West finished the weekend with five RBI, four runs scored, a home run and a triple.

SCOUTING LOUISIANA TECH

La. Tech is a strong all-around team and are currently 12-3 on the season with one more game to play before facing Dartmouth on Friday.
The Bulldogs started the season on an eight-game winning streak and won their first 12 out of 13 games including a 2-1 victory over No. 17 Auburn.
Tech is hitting .316 as a team and have eight players hitting .300 or better.
Kimmie Atienza leads the way with a .438 batting average with seven RBI, one home run and three doubles.
Mary Tarral leads the team with four home runs and 16 RBI while hitting .341.
The Bulldogs have stolen 39 bases and have only been caught stealing three times.
The pitching staff is just as good, La. Tech has a team ERA of 2.56.
Preslee Galloway has a 4-2 record with a 2.77 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 43.0 innings.
Krystal De La Cruz has a 4-1 record and a 2.86 ERA with 28 K's in 29.1 innings.

SCOUTING UCF

UCF is currently 9-4 this year with more game Thursday afternoon before they meet with Dartmouth on Friday.
The Knights have played a tough schedule against four ranked teams. They were able to defeat No. 24 Ohio State, 3-2.
The four losses for UCF came against Ole Miss (3-0), No. 21 Minnesota (7-0), No. 5 Washington (3-1) and No. 25 Mississippi State (11-3).
The Knights are currently on a six-game winning streak. They play La. Tech Thursday afternoon.
UCF is hitting .280 as a team, Denali Schappacher is hitting .375 with a team best eight runs scored.
Jazmine Esparza leads the way with 13 RBI and is second with four doubles while hitting .293.
In the circle, Breanna Vasquez has been lights out. She has a 4-1 record and a 0.93 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 30.0 innings.
Alea White has a 5-3 record with a 2.30 ERA and 41 K's in 51.2 innings.

SCOUTING TOLEDO

Toledo enters the UCF Invite with a 4-5 record after playing in the UNI Tournament where it struggled going 1-4 and the UT Chattanooga Challenge where the Rockets had a good showing going 3-1.
At the UNI Tournament, the Rockets lost their first four games to UNI, Drake twice and Southeast Missouri before finishing the tournament with a 4-0 win over St. Louis.
At the UT Chattanooga Challenge, Toledo played well picking up wins over Dayton (6-5), Kennesaw State (4-3) and Tennessee Tech (7-4). The lone loss was to Indiana State (5-1).
Toledo is hitting .254 as a team and has four players batting over .400 led by Brittney Davis (.462) who has three RBI, a home run and a triple.
Raelyn Nyren is hitting .438 with two RBI, while Kylie Norwood hits .400 and leads the team with 10 RBI and two home runs.
Samantha Golden has a .500 batting average in six at-bats but has three RBI and a triple.
The Rockets' pitching staff has had a hard time this season with a 6.83 team ERA.
Erin Hunt has thrown the most innings with 24.2 and sports a 4.38 ERA and a 3-1 record. She has racked up 32 strikeouts and opposing batters are hitting .180 against her.
Maggie McGurk has the fourth win for Toledo. She has a team best 2.41 ERA with seven strikeouts in 6.1 innings of work.

SCOUTING FLORIDA STATE

Defending National Champion Florida State is the No. 1 team in the country with 28 of the 32 first-place votes in the USA TODAY/NFCA COACHES POLL. UCLA is receiving the other four first-place votes.
Florida State is a perfect 17-0 coming into the UCF Invite. The Seminoles are outscoring opponents, 154-26. Their closest win was against Iowa State (1-0). The Cyclones run-ruled the Big Green last weekend.
The Seminoles are hitting .408 as a team, which is third best in the nation, and have three players hitting over .500, four over .400 and three over .300. That means 10 out of the 18 hitters who have played for Florida State are batting above .300.
As a team, Florida State has hit one more home run (33-leads the country) than doubles (32-third in the country), they have driven in 142 runs, have an on-base percentage of .491, a slugging percentage of .733 and have been safe on 30-36 stolen base attempts.
Pitching is not bad either. The team has a 1.35 ERA, has struck out 101 batters and allowed 75 hits in 104.0 innings.
Here is a link to their stats so you can see for yourself: https://seminoles.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2019-FSU-Softball-Season-Stats-10.pdf
Bottom Line – Florida State is good.

FOLLOW ALONG
To keep up-to-date on all the action over the weekend, you can visit the Dartmouth softball schedule by clicking HERE and finding the links for live video and live stats associated with the games.

WHAT'S AHEAD?
Dartmouth has next weekend off before traveling west to California where the Big Green will participate in the CSUN/Loyola Marymount Tournament on Mar. 15-17. Dartmouth will face No. 4 ranked Oklahoma among others.