Virginia Nips Dartmouth in Final Game of Series, 4-3

Sunday, March 1

Charlottesville, Va. / Davenport Field at Disharoon Park

12:00 PM

Dartmouth College

2-5

Virginia

9-3

Dartmouth

Virginia

Junior Ubaldo Lopez tripled and scored in the second.

Photo by: Keith Lucas

Virginia Nips Dartmouth in Final Game of Series, 4-3

3/1/2020 3:11:00 PM | Baseball

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The Big Green out-hit the Cavaliers, 9-5.

By: Rick Bender

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Dartmouth out-hit host Virginia in the final game of the three-game series at Davenport Field at Disharoon Park, but the Cavaliers managed to nip the Big Green on Sunday afternoon, 4-3. Two unearned runs in the sixth proved to be the difference as Virginia swept the series and improved to 9-3 while Dartmouth fell to 2-5.

Virginia struck first in the bottom of the first on a one-out, solo homer off the bat of Max Cotier, his first of the season. But the Big Green responded in their next at-bat as junior Ubaldo Lopez tripled to center field and came home on a grounder to short by sophomore Kade Kretzschmar, knotting the game at one.

Big Green right-hander Justin Murray worked around a leadoff double in the second and retired the side in order in the third, then was touched for a run in the fourth on a Chris Newell RBI double. Again Dartmouth tied the game after sophomore Bryce Daniel and senior Blake Crossing hit back-to-back singles to start the sixth. Murray sacrificed the two into scoring position, and sophomore Ben Rice battled reliever Andrew Abbott for 10 pitches before delivering an RBI grounder to short. Abbott escaped further damage by inducing a fly to right with two men on base.

A pair of errors proved costly in the bottom half of the sixth, leading to two Cavalier runs. Zack Gelof reached on a bobbled grounder and scooted to third on a double by Marc Lebreux. Logan Michaels gave Virginia the lead by lofting a sacrifice fly to left, and with two outs, a throwing error allowing Lebreux to score from third for a 4-2 Cavalier edge.

Virginia gave one of those runs back with an error of its own in the seventh. Freshman Peter O'Toole beat out an infield hit — the first of his collegiate career — with one out, then scampered to third on a throwing error, putting Big Green runners on the corners. On the very next pitch, Crossing poked a single to right, ending Abbott's turn on the mound. Right-hander Kyle Whitten came on to pitch, and after Crossing swiped second, got a called third strike to end the threat and preserve the 4-3 lead.

Junior Jonah Jenkins twirled a pair of scoreless innings in relief of Murray, and O'Toole greeted Cavalier closer Stephen Schoch with a leadoff single in the ninth. But Schoch proceeded to strike out the next three batters to close out the game for his fourth save of the season.

Abbott (3-0) earned the win out of the bullpen, allowing one unearned run on two hits in 1.1 innings of work. Starter Nate Savino hurled four frames and surrendered one run on two hits, striking out four as well.

Murray (1-1) was stuck with the loss, yielding four runs, two earned, on five hits without a walk while striking out two over six stanzas.

Crossing, O'Toole and junior Jordan Bustabad each had two hits as the Big Green banged out nine in the game. Newell was the lone Cavalier with two hits — both doubles — as Virginia collected five as a team.

Dartmouth will have close to two weeks off with winter finals on the horizon. The Big Green will return to action on March 14 at the RussMatt Invitational in Kissimmee, Florida, to start a four-game series with Hofstra before squaring off against Bradley once. The trip to the Sunshine State will conclude with a single game at Bethune-Cookman on March 18.