Big Green Split Twinbill with Chicago State

Saturday, February 22

Port Charlotte, Fla. / N. Charlotte Regional Park #9

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-1

Chicago State

0-6

Chicago State

Dartmouth

Ubaldo Lopez sizes up a pitch against Indiana State, Feb. 21, 2020

Ubaldo Lopez went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the first game.

Photo by: Mike Janes/Four Seam Images

2/22/2020 5:38:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game 1 Box (HTML)Game 1 Box (PDF)Game 2 Box (HTML)Game 2 Box (PDF)

Sarcone won his first collegiate game with five innings of one-run relief in game one

By: Rick Bender

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — Ubaldo Lopez went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a run and an RBI to lead Dartmouth to a 6-2 victory in the first game of a doubleheader at the Snowbird Classic on Saturday afternoon. But Chicago State (1-6), behind eight shutout innings from Rodny Valdes, salvaged a split with a 3-0 win in the nightcap.

Sophomore Trystan Sarcone (1-0) earned his first collegiate victory for the Big Green (1-2) thanks to five innings of one-run relief, fanning a career-high eight along the way. He and sophomore starter Nathan Skinner combined to strike out 14 Cougars without issuing a walk as each surrendered four hits and one run.

Chicago State touched Skinner up for his run in the top of the first on a leadoff double by Andy Gaytan, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Judah Wilbur. But Dartmouth answered in the bottom half of the frame when senior Trevor Johnson roped a leadoff triple and scored two batters later on a double play.

Lopez led off the fourth with his second two-bagger and eventually scored on a Kolton Freeman sacrifice fly. But like the Big Green, CSU had an immediate answer, greeting Sarcone in the fifth with the game-tying run on a hit batter and consecutive one-out singles, the second courtesy of Dalton Daily to plate Gabriel Coburn from second. Sarcone escaped further damage by getting a strike-him-out-throw-him-out double play to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Justin Murray singled home Johnson, who had walked and stolen second, and Lopez greeted reliever Nyk Crumrine with another RBI knock to give Dartmouth a 4-2 lead. The Big Green tacked on a run in the sixth on a Freeman triple and sacrifice fly from sophomore Kade Kretzschmar, though Chicago State head coach Steve Joslyn vehemently disagreed on the call at the plate.

Dartmouth added an insurance run in the eighth on a two-out, bases-loaded single off the bat of sophomore Ben Rice.

Brett Gregory (0-2) took the loss, yielding four runs, all earned, over 4.1 innings of work, on six hits and four walks with four strikeouts.

The second game was quite the pitchers' duel with junior Jonah Jenkins matching Valdes over the first five frames. But after Dartmouth mustered only a two-out single in the sixth, Chicago State rallied with two down and nobody out in the bottom half as three straight hitters reached base, the last on a Daily RBI single to break the scoreless tie.

The Cougars touched up the bullpen for in the seventh when Josue Ortiz lined a two-run double into the right-field corner.

Valdes' issued a leadoff walk in the eighth, but retired the next three hitters to maintain the 3-0 lead.

The Big Green threatened in the ninth against closer J.D. Brooks, loading the bases with one down on a Bryce Daniel single, Murray double and Rice walk. But Brooks bore down and retired the final two hitters on a popup and routine fly to center, closing out the first Chicago State win of the year for his first save.

Valdes (1-1) surrendered just three hits over his eight innings on the mound, walking two and striking out three.

Jenkins (0-1) deserved better having allowed just the one run on four hits and a walk over 5.2 innings, striking out one.

Dartmouth wraps up its time at the Snowbird Classic on Sunday when it takes on Omaha (4-2) at 10 a.m. The game will be streamed live through the subscription service of FloBaseball.