Mid-Week Matchup at Quinnipiac

Wednesday, March 27

Hamden, Conn.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

Quinnipiac

Senior Zac Bygum

Photo by: Mike Janes/Four Seam Images

3/26/2019 3:31:00 PM | Baseball

Watch Live Live Stats

Game against Bobcats is Dartmouth's 20th straight away from Hanover to start the season

By: Rick Bender

DARTMOUTH (7-11)
at QUINNIPIAC (8-12)
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 | 3 p.m. | Quinnipiac All-Access
QU Baseball Field | Hamden, Conn.

Dartmouth gets a mid-week tune-up at Quinnipiac on Wednesday afternoon following a series victory in the first Ivy League weekend against Princeton. Last year, the Big Green defeated the Bobcats in Dartmouth's 2018 home opener, 11-4.

The Overall Record vs. Quinnipiac
* Dartmouth has the advantage in the all-time series with 11 wins against seven losses.
• In last year's 11-4 victory, every Big Green starter had at least one hit as the team pounded out 17 knocks, including home runs by Dustin Shirley and Justin Fowler.
• The Bobcats won the previous two meetings, 5-4 in 2016 and 11-5 in 2014.
• The last game between the two at QU Baseball Field was six years ago, which Dartmouth won, 9-4, the first of two victories that year and sixth of seven straight against Quinnipiac.
• Big Green head coach Bob Whalen, who needs just eight more wins to reach 600 in his career, is 11-7 against the Bobcats as the series started in 2001, a 10-3 Dartmouth triumph.

Scouting the Bobcats
• Quinnipiac, which lost on Tuesday to Rhode Island, 5-4, is coming off a three-game sweep of Saint Peter's, the last Division I team without a victory this year.
• As a team, the Bobcats are averaging about 5.6 runs a game while hitting .269/.346/.377.
• Evan Vulgamore leads the team with a .329 average and .548 slugging percentage thanks to 10 doubles already, while Andre Marrero tops QU with four home runs.
• The Bobcats are not afraid to run with 44 stolen bases, nine each for Marrero and leadoff man Kyle Maves.
• The pitching staff sports a 5.85 ERA anchored by Tyler Poulin, who is 3-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 36 innings.
• Closer Andrew Workman has a 3.09 ERA in 11.2 innings, allowing the opposition to hit just .222.
• The defense averages a little more than one error per game with a fielding percentage of .966 while throwing out just over 20 percent of would-be base stealers.

~~Probable~~ Possible Starting Pitchers
• Dartmouth will send a number of hurlers to the mound in this game, but has not definitively named a starter. So I'm simply going to guess that junior RHP Alec Vaules (0-0, 7.27) will get the nod after acquitting himself nicely against Bradley in his first collegiate start last week.
• As for Quinnipiac, they are expected to throw RHP Gabriel Romano (0-0, 4.91 ERA) in his first start of the season.

Bats Thaw Out
To say Dartmouth struggled at the plate during its Southern trips is a bit of an understatement after averaging 3.0 runs per game with a team batting average of just .215. That all changed when the Big Green came back to the North, pounding out 21 hits and scoring 23 runs in the Ivy League opener against Princeton in a 23-3 victory. Those 23 runs matched the second-most scored by Dartmouth in a league game dating back to 1930, bested only by 25 against Harvard on May 4, 2002. For a little more perspective, those 23 runs were more than the Green had scored in its previous eight games combined. Dartmouth completed the doubleheader sweep thanks to 10 more runs in the nightcap with the last five coming in the ninth to overcome a 6-5 deficit, the team's second win this season when trailing entering the ninth.

Lopez Named a National Player of the Week
What a difference a week makes. Prior to the first game against Bradley on March 19, sophomore Ubaldo Lopez had a career batting average of exactly .100 (5-for-50), but the coaching staff knew it was just a matter of time before he broke out. And break out in a big way he did as he launched two homers and drove in all six runs in the 6-2 victory. His second long ball was a two-out grand slam in the ninth to lift the Big Green to the win. Lopez proved it was no one-game fluke by doubling in each of the next two games, then went 5-for-12 with three more two-baggers, five runs and five RBIs in the series win over Princeton, including a two-out, three-run double in the ninth of the second game to rally Dartmouth from a 6-5 deficit in the 10-8 win. Those numbers and heroics were why Collegiate Baseball named him as one of its National Players of the Week, the first Big Green player to earn the honor since Joe Purritano in 2013.

O'Connor More Than OK
Lost in all of the offense of the 23-3 win over Princeton was the dazzling performance on the mound by senior Cole O'Connor. The right-hander limited the Tigers to two runs over eight innings on six hits and a pair of walks while fanning four. The last of those strikeouts was the 100th of his career as he improved his record to 11-10 in his four years with the Big Green.

Logan Loads Up
When Ubaldo Lopez homered twice in the 6-2 win over Bradley, it was the first time a Dartmouth hitter swatted two four-baggers in the same game in nearly three years (Michael Ketchmark against North Florida on March 24, 2016). Sophomore Logan Adams figured Big Green fans shouldn't have to wait that long for it to happen again, so the catcher — who was 0-for-13 on the season — sent two over the fence in the 23-3 win over Princeton just four days after Lopez performed the feat. Adams finished the day 4-for-6 with those two bombs and six RBIs, matching Lopez' total as well. No Big Green player has had more than six RBIs in a game since Dustin Selzer had seven against Columbia on April 8, 2012.