Stellar Pitching Carries Dartmouth to First Win of Season

Tuesday, March 14

Tampa, Fla. / USF Baseball Stadium

6:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-7

USF

5-12

Dartmouth

South Florida

Junior Clark Gilmore

Photo by: Gil Talbot

Stellar Pitching Carries Dartmouth to First Win of Season

3/14/2023 8:59:00 PM | Baseball

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Clark Gilmore held USF in check for five innings in relief to earn his first career victory

By: Rick Bender

TAMPA, Fla. — Junior Clark Gilmore provided five innings of one-run relief and his classmate Tyler Robinson ripped a three-run triple to highlight Dartmouth's first victory of the season, a 6-1 triumph at USF Baseball Stadium over the Bulls on Tuesday evening. The Big Green (1-7) ended their seven-game skid to start the season, while USF dropped to 5-12.

Junior Tyler Cox was a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate — his fifth career four-hit game — to lead the 12-hit attack for Dartmouth, while senior Connor Bertsch and junior Max Zajec each scored a pair of runs.

With a staff ERA of over 11.00 through the first seven contests, the Big Green were very much in need of a strong pitching performance. After staff ace Trystan Sarcone pitched a scoreless first as a tuneup for the weekend, Gilmore (1-0) took over on the mound in just his third career appearance, surrendering just a solitary run in the third in his five-inning relief stint while striking out four to earn his first collegiate victory.

That run came after Dartmouth had taken a 3-0 lead in the top half of the third against left-hander Nolan Hudi, the reigning American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week. Zajec, sophomore Jackson Hower and Cox each singled, loading the bases with one down for Robinson. The left-handed designated hitter lined a full-count pitch into the right-field corner to clear the bases as he cruised into third with his first triple of the season to give the Green a 3-0 lead.

The Bulls answered with their run in the bottom half on a walk, single and sacrifice bunt before clean-up hitter Drew Brutcher lofted a sacrifice fly to center.

But Dartmouth had a response of its own in the fourth when Hower bounced a seeing-eye single up the middle to drive in senior Connor Bertsch, who had led off the inning with a walk. With two out, Cox lined the first pitch he saw into right that landed just in front of the diving right fielder for an RBI single with Zajec — who had also walked — crossing the plate for a 5-1 advantage.

Gilmore did run into trouble in the sixth, however, when USF loaded the bases with one out. But the right-hander induced a comebacker to the mound, and Gilmore started the home-to-first double play to escape unscathed with the 5-1 lead intact.

After Bertsch led off the eighth with a single that deflected off reliever Chandler Dorsey's throwing hand, senior Kolton Freeman laced a 2-1 pitch into the right-center gap for a double that brought Bertsch all the way around from first with the Big Green's final run of the night.

Meanwhile, the bullpen continued its stellar night as sophomore southpaw Danny Will recorded five consecutive outs after the first batter singled against him to start the seventh. When he surrendered a two-out single in the eighth, he gave way to senior Jack Metzger, an All-Ivy League Second Team selection as a reliever last year, who gave up another single before getting another comebacker to end the inning. Metzger then faced the minimum in the ninth, ending the game on a swinging third strike to seal the victory.

Hudi (1-2) took the loss for giving up five runs, all earned, on six hits and three walks over four frames, fanning four. The ninth hitter in the order Rafael Betancourt, led the Bulls with three of the team's nine hits.

The two teams will conclude their brief two-game, mid-week series on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Freshman right-hander Eddie Albert (0-1, 9.00) is scheduled to pitch the first inning followed by the bullpen, with USF right-hander Lawson Gailey (0-1, 6.23) pairing up against him on the mound. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with live stats available through StatBroadcast as well as the official site of Dartmouth Athletics, DartmouthSports.com.

Notes: Dartmouth is now 2-7 all-time against USF … after hitting .402 last year to rank 10th among Division I hitters, Cox is at .419 after eight games this year … the last Big Green reliever to throw five innings was Cole Roland in a five-inning stint at Cornell last year, also earning a win in a 10-8 triumph.