The performance was an improvement from last year's spring trip to California, during which the Big Green went 1-7. On this year's trip, Dartmouth mostly faced schools from the Northeast and Midwest, while the Big Green played schools exclusively from California last year. Dartmouth has not had a winning record on its annual spring trip since 2000.
The Big Green spent most of the week in Winter Haven, the former spring training site of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, before shifting to Daytona Beach for a three-game series against Bethune-Cookman University.
Dartmouth started strong on the trip, winning three of its first four games. The lone loss came at the hands of the University of Akron as Dartmouth fell by a score of 25-10, despite pounding out 18 hits in the game.
The 25 runs were the most given up by the Big Green since a 27-11 loss to Navy on April 24, 1988.
Excluding the loss to the Akron Zips (13-9, 2-1 MAC), Dartmouth had a successful trip, winning five games and losing the other five by a combined seven runs.
"I thought we competed pretty well," Joe Sclafani '12 said. "The games we lost, we had opportunities to win. I'm pretty pleased with [the trip]."
Dartmouth broke out with strong hitting, plating 10 runs or more in its first three games. The Big Green is hitting .310 on the season.
Jeff Onstott '11 leads the team at .360 and is one of eight Dartmouth batters hitting over .300 for the season.
One of the highlights of the trip was the performance of two Big Green pitchers in games against Bucknell University and Long Island University. In the 10-5 victory over the Bucknell Bison (10-14, 0-0 Patriot) on March 17 to open the trip, Robert Young '10 went six innings for the win, surrendering three earned runs while striking out a career-high ten batters against no walks.
Against the Long Island Blackbirds (2-16, 0-4 NEC) two days later, preseason Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Kyle Hendricks '12 threw six strong innings to earn the 14-2 win allowing just one earned run and walking one batter.
Hendricks struck out 11 batters, posting the most strikeouts by a Dartmouth pitcher in a game since 2004.
Dartmouth saved some drama for the very end of the trip as its final two games against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (15-11, 3-0 MEAC) both featured exciting endings. On Friday, with the score tied at three in the bottom of the ninth, Wildcat catcher Pete O'Brien hit his third home run of the game, earning a 4-3 walk-off victory for Bethune-Cookman.
The next day, Dartmouth entered the ninth inning trailing, 12-9, when David Turnbull '12 drilled a lead-off single to right field. Ennis Coble '13 then knocked in Turnbull with a single to center.
Four batters later, with two outs and the bases loaded, Zack Bellenger '13 hit an 0-1 pitch from Juan Perez to right field for a bases-clearing double, giving Dartmouth a 13-12 lead. Bellenger took third base on the throw and later scored on a wild pitch from Perez.
By the time Jason Brooks '11 struck out to end the inning, the Big Green had driven in five runs to take a 14-12 lead. Young pitched a scoreless ninth to lock down his first career save and cement Dartmouth's come-from-behind win.
"We finally wound up getting the big hits we needed and came out on top," Sclafani said. "It was a good way to end the trip."
The Big Green squad is back in action on Wednesday, traveling to Loudonville, N.Y., to take on Siena College.
