Bucknell University Athletics
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Dartmouth
Baseball Opens Florida Trip with 1-1 Record
3/8/2015 8:46:00 PM | Baseball
Game 1: Dartmouth 8, Bucknell 0
Game 2: Bucknell 13, Illinois State 8
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Anthony Gingerelli was 4-for-6 with three runs scored and Brett Smith and Mark Powell had three hits apiece as the Bucknell baseball team bounced back from an 8-0 loss earlier in the day to Dartmouth with a 13-8 victory over Illinois State to begin its seven-game trip to Florida Sunday. The Bison had a season-high-tying 19 hits against the Redbirds and is now 6-3 on the year.
Bucknell scored at least one run in seven of the nine innings in its win over Illinois State (6-6). In addition to their 19 hits, the Bison drew four walks and reached three times on a hit by pitch against five Redbird pitchers.
Xavier Hammond (2-0) earned the win for Bucknell by allowing three runs in 6.0 innings of work. He departed with a 9-3 lead.
Illinois State plated three runs against the bullpen in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth to cut the Bison advantage to 9-8. Bucknell responded with four runs on five hits in the top of the ninth, while Danny Rafferty struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth for his second save of the year.
Rafferty came on to pitch (after starting the game in left field) in the bottom of the eighth with runners on first and second and the Bison holding a 9-8 lead. He got the first hitter he faced to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Rafferty also came up big at the plate with an RBI double in the sixth and an RBI single in the ninth. He also drove in a run on a first-inning ground out.
Bucknell had at least three baserunners in each of the first four innings and pushed across one run in each frame.
The top three hitters in the Bison lineup – Smith, Gingerelli and Joe Ogren – scored eight of Bucknell's runs in the game. They reached base a combined 13 times, including five by Ogren, who was walked four times in Sunday's two games.
Back-to-back singles by Smith and Gingerelli opened the four-run ninth inning that gave the Bison a cushion. A two-run single by Sam Clark was the big blow in the frame, while Rafferty and Powell added RBIs.
In the opener against Dartmouth (1-6), Bucknell advanced just one runner as far as third base and recorded only three hits against Big Green pitchers Patrick Peterson (5.0 IP, win) and Sam Fichthorn (4.0 IP, save).
Dartmouth scored one run in the first inning and four more in the second. It added two more in the fourth and one in the sixth and finished with 17 hits against four Bison pitchers. Bryson Hough (2-1) got the start and yielded 14 hits and eight runs in 5.1 innings. Four runs were unearned as Bucknell committed five errors.
The Bison will be idle on Monday. The remainder of their games in Florida will take place in Winter Haven. Next up is a 10 a.m. contest Tuesday vs. Bowling Green.
