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Lopez Grand Slam in Ninth Lifts Dartmouth to 6-2 Victory over Bradley

AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Sophomore Ubaldo Lopez launched the first two home runs of his career, the second unloading the bases with two outs in the ninth to lift Dartmouth to a 6-2 victory over Bradley on Tuesday evening at Lake Myrtle Park. Lopez drove in all six runs for the Big Green (5-8), which snapped a four-game skid, while Bradley dropped to 8-6 on the season.

With the game knotted at two entering the top of the ninth, senior Nate Ostmo started a rally with a one-out double to left-center. With two gone, freshman Justin Murray walked, and on the very next pitch, both runners advanced when Jed Moscot uncorked a wild pitch. That led Moscot (1-1) to intentionally walk senior Steffen Torgersen, and Lopez drove a shot over the fence in left-center for a grand slam and a 6-2 lead.

Sophomore southpaw Max Hunter, who suffered a pregame mishap and had to get checked out at the hospital, returned to the park in the sixth and entered to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He quickly retired the side in order to seal the victory for fellow reliever Michael Parsons, who had hurled a pair of scoreless stanzas while striking out three, though he had to escape a one-out jam in the eighth by getting the final two outs on strikes with runners on the corners.

The Braves struck first in the second inning with Andy Shadid, Keaton Rice and Jean-Francois Garon hit back-to-back-to-back doubles for a 2-0 lead against Dartmouth starter Tyler Fagler. That would be all Fagler surrendered over six innings of work, however, as he struck out a career-high nine batters while allowing just two other hits and one walk.

Meanwhile, Bradley lefty Brooks Gosswein was putting goose eggs on the scoreboard for four innings before getting tagged by Lopez in the fifth. The four-bagger drove in freshman Justin Murray, who had produced his first collegiate hit to lead off the frame, tying the game at two.

Gosswein eventually tossed seven innings and allowed the two runs on four hits and three walks while fanning four.

Senior Sean Sullivan joined Lopez with two hits in the game as Dartmouth had seven as a team, and Murray and Lopez each scored twice.

Shadid had two of the Braves’ seven hits, four of which were two-baggers.

The Big Green will look to clinch the three-game series in the second meeting tomorrow afternoon at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee at 2 p.m.

Notes: The last Dartmouth hitter to swat two home runs in a game was Michael Ketchmark, almost exactly three years ago to the day in an 8-6 loss at North Florida on March 24, 2016 … the last time anyone had six RBIs in a game for the Big Green was last May 5 when Kyle Holbrook pulled off the feat in a 16-1 triumph over Princeton during a three-game sweep of the Tigers … the last grand slam was by Holbrook in that very same game … the two home runs doubled Dartmouth’s total as a team for the season.

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