Box Score Stetson baseball coach Pete Dunn struggled to find a way to express his frustration with his team on Tuesday night after a 2-1 loss to visiting Dartmouth in 10 innings at Melching Field.
“I could probably make some money if I took the video from this game and made a training video on all the ways offensively to lose a game,” Dunn said. “It is surprising, because we thought we would swing the bats well.”
The Hatters fell to 12-10 on the season with the loss while the Big Green improved to 4-9. Stetson completed its home stand with a 5-3 record.
The game most likely wouldn't have needed an extra inning if the Hatters could have produced early in the game when they had scoring chances. Stetson left runners in scoring position in both the first and second innings against Dartmouth starter Beau Sulser by taking called third strikes.
“The first two innings, we had runners in scoring position and took called third strikes,” Dunn said. “We have talked about physical adjustments – choking up on the bat, spreading out your stance and crowding the plate with two strikes. You do that and you don't let a strike go by. The key is you have to take the bat off your shoulder.”
Stetson also left a runner in scoring position in the fourth inning and, in the fifth, after finally getting a run on the board, made a base-running mistake. Austin Hale doubled to open the frame and then scored on a two-out single by Vance Vizcaino after freshmen Jacob Koos and Matt Morales were unable to get anything done.
“Guys who are supposed to bunt, can't bunt,” Dunn said. “We get the base hit to go ahead, have our four hole hitter coming to the plate with the guy who leads the team in stolen bases at first, and he tries to trick them and go to second base and gets thrown out by a mile to end the inning. He could have easily stolen the bag. It was a dumb play.”
The Hatters managed just one more hit the rest of the night.
While the Stetson offense struggled, the Hatters' pitching continued to shine. Freshman Logan Gilbert made his first start and struck out four in three innings. Another freshman, Joey Gonzalez followed with two strong innings, but walked Nate Ostmo, the No. 9 hitter in the Big Green order, to start the sixth after Stetson had just taken the lead.
A fielding error on a ground ball failed to eliminate Ostmo from the bases and, after a pitching change, Dartmouth cleanup hitter Rob Emery delivered a two-out single off Josh Thorne to tie the game.
Thorne and Walker Sheller shut down the Big Green for the final three innings, but senior Adam Schaly (1-2) ran into trouble in the 10th. He surrendered a leadoff single to Mike Brown, who was sacrificed into scoring position. Ben Socher then pulled a double over the bag at third to give Dartmouth the lead.
Schaly got out of any further damage with a pair of strikeouts, but the Hatters did not have any final at bat magic left.
“I am so frustrated,” Dunn said. “It is disappointing. Maybe I over-estimated our mental toughness, because that is what it comes down to. You may strike out, but you can't take a called third strike with runners in scoring position. We are slow learners because we continue to do it over and over again.
“I have obviously been a tremendous failure getting improvement out of the ball club when it comes to taking called third strikes and when it comes to getting down a bunt.”
Dartmouth sophomore Patrick Peterson (1-0) worked the final two innings for the Big Green to get this win. He walked two and struck out three, but did not allow a hit.
“Dartmouth didn't throw any of their decent pitchers tonight because they have been playing every day and they have games with North Florida the next two days and a three-game series at South Florida this weekend,” Dunn said. “That was some of their down the line pitching that did that to us tonight, and that is even more frustrating.
“We can't take advantage of teams when they come in here and are short on pitching. Those teams have been leaving here with a lot of confidence, because we give those pitchers a lot of confidence. It is one thing to not get hits, but you have to do the little things that can win a game for you, and we aren't doing those things.”
The Hatters will open a three-game series on Thursday evening in Conway, SC, against Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers were also on the losing end on Tuesday night, falling 4-2 at the College of Charleston. Game time on Thursday is set for 6 p.m.
