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Dartmouth
Bucknell Baseball Suffers First Loss on Florida Trip, 10-5 to Dartmouth
3/17/2010 8:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 17, 2010
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Playing without its top three hitters in the lineup, the Bucknell baseball team suffered its first loss on its Spring Break trip to Florida Wednesday afternoon at Chain of Lakes Stadium, losing to Dartmouth, 10-5. The Big Green's Robert Young (1-0) struck out 10 in six innings to pick up his first win of the season.
Bucknell (8-7), which saw its three-game winning streak end, was using its fourth starter of its seven-game trip, while Dartmouth (2-2), which will play 11 games in the next 11 days, was at the beginning of its Florida stay.
The Bison had scored 48 runs in their last three games, but managed just five runs against Dartmouth as the team's top three hitters - B.J. LaRosa (Jacksonville, Fla./Episcopal), Ben Yoder (Belleville, Pa./Indian Valley) and Drew Constable (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) - were out of the lineup with injuries. That trio had 71 of Bucknell's 186 hits this season entering the contest. Despite those three hitters missing from the lineup, the Bison did register nine hits, including three from David Duffett (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny), who was a double shy of the cycle, and two from Scott Reed (Reston, Va./South Lakes), who had a pair of doubles.
Duffett's first career home run with two outs in the second staked the Bison to a 1-0 lead. After Dartmouth scored a pair off starter Russell Seidell (Granville, Ohio/Granville) in the bottom of the second, Bucknell went back on top with two runs in the top of the third. Ben Allen (Port Royal, Pa./Juniata) led off with a double and came around to score on Reed's second double. Reed later scored when he and Andrew Brouse (Kreamer, Pa./Midd-West) executed a first-and-third double steal.
Brouse's single was the last hit for the Bison off Young, who retired 10 of the final 12 hitters he faced. Only Gerald Runyan (Milton, Pa./Milton) reached base during that stretch, both times on errors. Young had two strikeouts in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings before departing in favor of Cole Susler, who earned his first save of the season by striking out four and yielding four hits over the final three innings of play.
The 3-2 Bucknell lead in the top of the third was the final advantage of the day for the Bison as the Big Green batted around and scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Jake Carlson led the inning off with a home run and later Dartmouth strung together four two-out hits in a row off Seidell (0-2). An RBI single by Jason Brooke knocked Seidell from the game in favor of Alex Cillo (Williamsport, Pa./Loyalsock Township).
Cillo, who finished with a career-high seven strikeouts in 4.0 innings, retired nine of the first 12 hitters he faced and set Dartmouth down in order in the fifth and sixth innings. Bucknell narrowed its deficit to 7-4 with a single run in the seventh on a sac fly by Allen, but Dartmouth finally got to Cillo in the bottom of the seventh as Jim Wren drove in one run with a single and Jason Brooks had a two-out, two-run single to round out the Big Green scoring. Five of the eight hits against Cillo came in the seventh inning.
Dartmouth finished with 18 hits in the game with all nine starters collecting at least one hit. Ennis Coble had three hits, including a solo home run in the fourth, while Brooks recorded three hits and drove in a team-high four runs.
The game featured a total of six errors, three by each team, although just one unearned run was scored.
Bison first baseman Doug Shribman (Marblehead, Mass./Belmont Hill), who had at least one hit in 31 of his last 32 games, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, bringing an end to his 13-game hitting streak.
Bucknell's young starting lineup, including Seidell at pitcher, featured five sophomores and a freshman.
The Bison, who are 3-1 during their weeklong trip, will take on Illinois Thursday at 3 p.m. at Chain of Lakes Stadium. It is the first of three consecutive games against Big Ten opponents for Bucknell.
