Baseball Suffers 8-2 Defeat Against Central Connecticut

Thursday, March 17

Auburndale, Fla. / Lake Myrtle Park

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

3-6

Central Connecticut

4-4

Dartmouth

Central Conn. State

Peter O’Toole connects with a pitch at Gardner-Webb, March 4, 2022

Peter O'Toole scored one of the two Big Green runs.

Photo by: Willis Glassgow

Baseball Suffers 8-2 Defeat Against Central Connecticut

3/17/2022 6:32:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Kade Kretzschmar provided the only two runs with an eighth-inning triple

By: Rick Bender

AUBURNDALE, Fla. — A two-run triple in the eighth off the bat of senior Kade Kretzschmar were the only runs Dartmouth could muster against Central Connecticut State on Friday afternoon in an 8-2 defeat at Lake Myrtle Park. The Blue Devils (4-4) scored three runs in the sixth to break open the game and hand the Big Green (3-6) their third straight loss.

Hunter Pasqualini and Elliot Good led CCSU at the plate as each had two hits, a walk, run and three RBIs while Aidan Redahan also provided two hits in the 10-hit attack.

Vincent Spizzoucco (1-0) earned the victory in his first career start, hurling 5.2 scoreless innings while scattering five hits and a walk to go with a pair of strikeouts.

The Blue Devils began the scoring in the second against Big Green starter Tyler Cortland with three consecutive singles by Redahan, Dylan Sanchez and Good, the last one plating the game's first run. Pasqualini the lofted a fly to center, allowing Sanchez to score from third to make it a 2-0 CCSU lead.

The sacrifice fly was the first of nine consecutive outs recorded by Cortland before he ran into trouble in the fifth as Pasqualini stroked a one-out triple and scored on a Jay Devito single. With two outs and runners on second and third, Dartmouth summoned Jack Metzger from the bullpen, and he escaped further damage by a inducing a grounder to short, holding the Big Green deficit to three.

But the Blue Devils got back-to-back doubles by Good and Pasqualini in the sixth that drove in three more runs, extending their lead to 6-0. In the seventh, they tacked on two more, one of which was unearned.

The Dartmouth bats, could not push a run across against Spizzoucco despite putting three runners on base in the first and two more in the sixth with nobody out on back-to-back singles by senior Bryce Daniel and sophomore Tyler Cox. After two infield popups, CCSU made the call to the bullpen so Spizzoucco did not have to face junior Connor Bertsch, who had doubled his previous time up to extend his hitting streak to six games. Bertsch stung one of John Mikosz's offerings, but it landed in the glove of the left fielder to squelch the potential rally.

The Big Green did get to the fourth Blue Devil pitcher of the afternoon, however, thanks to some wildness that put two runners on via the base on balls. With two gone, Kretzschmar got hold of a 3-1 pitch and sent into the gap in left-center for a two-run triple. But that would be all for Dartmouth on this day.

Cortland (0-2) took the loss as he surrendered three runs on five hits and two walks over 4.2 innings of work, striking out three along the way. Kretzschmar and Daniel both had two hits to lead the Big Green offense.

Dartmouth will play again on Friday against Bradley (4-9) at Lake Myrtle Park with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.