Big Green Drop Final Game at UCF, 5-2

Sunday, March 19

Orlando, Fla. / John Euliano Park

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-11

UCF

15-5

Dartmouth

UCF

Freshman Eddie Albert pitched four strong innings of relief

Photo by: Mike Janes

3/19/2023 4:40:00 PM | Baseball

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Eddie Albert pitched well in relief and Tyler Cox rapped out two more hits in the loss

By: Rick Bender

ORLANDO, Fla. — Dartmouth jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but host UCF answered with three in its half and held the Big Green scoreless the rest of the way to sweep the three-game series with a 5-2 victory at John Euliano Park on Sunday afternoon. Andrew Sundean had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Knight (15-5) to their fifth straight victory, while Dartmouth dropped to 1-11 on the season.

Cam Leiter (1-1) was credited with the victory in a scheduled short start of two-plus innings, but it was Dom Stagliano that provided five of the seven scoreless innings of relief, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out five. Kyle Kramer fanned a pair in a perfect ninth to earn the save for a second straight day, his fifth of the year.

After scoring in seven of the nine innings in yesterday's game, Dartmouth kept its offense rolling against Leiter. Junior Tyler Cox, who had two of the Big Green's five hits on the day, started the game with a base hit and strolled to second on a walk to freshman Milo Suarez. After a grounder advanced the runners, Leiter unleashed a wild pitch to score Cox with the game's first run. Two batters later, senior James House lined an RBI single to left for a 2-0 lead. But Leiter escaped further damage, stranding two runners by getting a fly ball and a called third strike on a full-count pitch.

UCF quickly responded in the bottom of the first, loading the bases on a single, walk and hit batter against junior Clark Gilmore (1-1). Sundean then dropped a two-run single into left-center, knotting the score at two apiece. Another hit batter with one down reloaded the bases, and Drew Faurot lofted a fly ball to left deep enough to score Ben McCabe from third for a 3-2 Knight lead.

Dartmouth threatened to draw even again in the second, putting runners on the corners with one out. But a bunt could only advance the runner on first and Leiter induced a grounder to second to end the threat.

Sundean tacked on the fourth UCF run in its half of the second, yanking a hard RBI single down the third-base line just past the Big Green fielder.

From there, the game was a pretty quiet affair. Dartmouth never had more than one runner on base in any of the last seven innings. Freshman Eddie Albert, meanwhile, tamed the potent UCF bats by tossing four innings of one-run ball for Dartmouth on five hits and a walk while punching out a pair. Junior Shane Bauer and freshman Mac Burke both twirled scoreless stanzas as well.

The lone run after the second came in the Knights' half of the sixth when McCabe beat out an infield single to score Andrew Brait, who had led off the frame with a double, one of just two extra-base hits on the day.

Dartmouth will finish its spring-break trip with two games at Jacksonville (13-8) on Tuesday and Wednesday. First pitch for both games will be at 7 p.m. Fans can follow along by listening to the free audio broadcast through JUDolphins.com, the Jacksonville athletics website, and live stats will be available as well.

Notes: UCF is now 6-3 all-time against the Big Green … senior Kolton Freeman's eight-game hitting streak remained in tact after walking twice and stealing a base before departing the game … Cox boosted his average on the season to .467 (21-for-45) and has seven multi-hit games this season … the last time Dartmouth began a season 1-11 was 2015 when it lost 12 of its first 13 games, then came back to go 16-4 in the Ivy League and win the Rolfe Division title to play in the Ivy League Championship Series.