Spring Trip Continues with Three Games at UCF

DARTMOUTH (1-8) at USF (12-5)
March 17-19, 2023 • John Euliano Park • Orlando, Fla.

Changing the S to a C
After a mid-week, two-game series at USF this week, Dartmouth gets a chance to take on UCF three times this weekend. The Big Green split the series with the Bulls, picking up their first win of the season along the way, but now they have the challenge of taking on a Golden Knight team that took two from 21st-ranked Florida State on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Last Games in Review
• Dartmouth opened its seven-game Florida swing with a 6-1 victory over USF before coming up just short in the final game in Tampa by a 4-3 count.
• In both games, the Big Green employed a weekend starter as a one-inning opener before turning to the bullpen. Clark Gilmore was terrific in relief in the first game, yielding just one run over five innings to earn his first win in just his third career appearance.
• Tyler Robinson provided the big blow in the win, lacing a three-run triple into the right-field corner. It was his sixth career triple out of nine career extra-base hits.
• In the 4-3 defeat, Dartmouth essentially bookended the game with home runs with Tyler Cox leading off with a round-tripper to start the game and rookie Nico Bañez launching the first of his career with two outs in the ninth, both solo shots.
• Cox reached base in each of his 10 plate appearances in the series, extending his streak to 11 dating back to the Wagner game on March 5. The shortstop was 7-for-7 versus the Bulls with his home run and three walks, scoring two runs and driving in two.
• The improvement on the mound was a welcome sight. After posting an ERA of 11.75 over the first seven contests, the Big Green hurlers lowered that mark by over two full runs by giving up just five earned runs in 17.0 innings (2.65).
• While a 1-8 start is certainly not ideal, this is the fourth time in the last 15 years Dartmouth has had that record. In two of the previous three occurrences, the Big Green went on to post a winning streak of at least 13 games and twice won their division in the Ivy League.

Overall Record vs. UCF
• Dartmouth has taken on the Golden Knights six times previously, going 3-3 against them.
• Tbe meetings all came in the form of three-game series, one in 2011 in which UCF won two of three, and one in 2017 that saw the Big Green take two of three.
• All three Dartmouth wins were by three runs or fewer, but the Golden Knight victories were all by at least seven runs, including a 15-0 shutout in the most recent showdown.
• Against American Athletic Conference teams, Dartmouth has an all-time record of 8-26 and has played East Carolina more than any other current member, going 2-9 against the Pirates.
• UCF is the only AAC team that the Big Green has broken even against.

Scouting the Golden Knights
• UCF began the season winning eight of its first nine games, but then dropped two of three to both Georgia Southern and Troy before beating FSU earlier this week by scores of 14-3 and 6-3.
• The Golden Knights offense boasts a slash line of .305/.402/.556, averaging eight runs a game.
• With 38 home runs, UCF has plenty of power with four players sporting an OPS of at least 1.000. Ben McCabe leads this group with 10 long balls in 65 at-bats and a slugging percentage that ranks third in the nation (1.000).
• Tom Josten is another big bat in the middle of the order with eight blasts and a team-high 20 RBIs.
• The lineup does have some swing and miss in it, striking out more than once every four at-bats.
• The pitching staff has put recorded an ERA of 5.01 with a pair of relievers boasting an ERA under 1.00 — Kyle Kramer (0.00 in 10.2 IP) and Nick Vieira (0.82 in 11.0 IP).
• The defense has been shaky at times with 24 errors in 17 games but has turned 11 double plays and caught 4-of-13 base stealers.
• Greg Lovelady (Miami '01) is in his seventh season as the UCF head coach having posted a record of 332-174 entering the weekend. Three times he has guided the Golden Knights to an NCAA Regional appearance with at least 43 victories in each of those years.

Probable Starting Pitchers
• Fifth-year senior LHP Trystan Sarcone (0-2, 16.43), who pitched a scoreless inning at USF as an opener on Tuesday, takes the ball for the first game of the series to set him up for the start of Ivy League play next weekend. He will be matched up against RHP Ruddy Gomez (2-0, 3.47), the UCF leader in ERA innings and strikeouts.
• Saturday's contest will feature senior RHP Jack Metzger (0-2, 11.57), fresh off closing out Tuesday's victory at USF by getting the final four outs. He ranks among the top 20 in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio and fewest walks per nine innings. The Golden Knights' starter is still TBA, but if you want me to hazard a guess (and I know you do), I'll go with Najer Victor (0-1, 1.93), who threw three hitless inning against Bethune-Cookman in his lone start of the year.
• Finally, the Big Green are going with the nefarious TBA on Sunday, who will likely turn out to be RHP Eddie Albert (0-1, 7.88) if he doesn't pitch in relief on Saturday. The freshman was the opener on Wednesday, tossing a scoreless inning against the Bulls. UCF will counter with RHP Cameron Leiter (0-1, 9.20), the nephew of former big league pitchers Al and Mark Leiter. The rookie comes from a family with electric stuff, but he is still working on harnessing it as evidenced by 13 walks and 19 strikeouts in 14.2 innings of work.

What's Up Next
Dartmouth will complete its spring trip to Florida with two games at Jacksonville on Tuesday and Wednesday. They will be the first two games between the two schools on the diamond.

First Victory
The Big Green broke into the win column on March 14 in their first game of the spring trip by defeating USF, 6-1. It wasn't just the first win for Dartmouth this year, but also the first for junior Clark Gilmore on the mound in just his third career appearance. The right-hander pitched five effective innings of relief, surrendering just one run on four hits and three walks while fanning four. Tyler Robinson dealt the initial offensive blow by lining a three-run triple in the third, and RBI singles by Jackson Hower, Tyler Cox and Kolton Freeman added to the cushion.

Pitching Shaping Up
Big Green pitchers struggled throughout the season-opening seven-game skid, recording an ERA of 11.75. But at USF, the results were much more encouraging as they combined to post a 2.65 ERA, lowering the season mark more than two runs to 9.65. But they will have their work cut out for them this weekend against a team that boasts an OPS of .958.

Cox Steering the Ship
A little rowing humor for you there. Junior Tyler Cox was 10th in the nation last year with a .402 average, and he has picked up right where he left off. At USF, Cox was a perfect 7-for-7 with three walks in the two games and has reached base safely in 11 consecutive plate appearances dating back to the 4-3 loss to Wagner. Since his streak of reaching base ended at 33 games in the finale at Miami, he has been on base at least once in each of the last six games, and his unstoppable showing against the Bulls boosted his average to .471 on the season, 15th among Division I hitters. He also ranks among the top 20 in the country in on-base percentage (.571) and toughest to strike out (once every 34.0 at-bats).

Power Surge
Through the first eight games, Dartmouth hitters had hit the grand total of one home run. But against USF on March 15, the Big Green tripled that total by blasting a pair of four-baggers. The first came courtesy of Tyler Cox, who led off the game with a big fly, the second of his career. The other came with two outs in the ninth when freshman Nico Bañez belted a 2-1 pitch over the fence in right in just his fifth collegiate at-bat. The round-tripper closed the gap to 4-3, but Dartmouth still ended up a run short in the loss.

Where There's a Will …
No pitcher on the team has seen as much action as often as Danny Will. The sophomore southpaw has pitched in five of the nine games to date with a 4.91 ERA over 7.1 innings while striking out eight. He was particularly effective at USF, pitching in both games and holding the Bulls scoreless over 2.2 innings of relief. If he were to keep up his current pace, he would pitch in 23 games, which would be second on the Dartmouth single-season charts.

Schedules