'He's our guy': Rego goes from reliever to Dartmouth's ace in one year

NEW BEDFORD — Ian Rego was starting to turn heads a year ago with three saves as a reliever for Dartmouth, but his sophomore season was cut short when he broke his finger sliding into second base.

“He was at the point where he was going to get some starts because when he went out there he was doing a good job,” said Dartmouth head coach Mike Frates.

Rego worked hard in the offseason to become Dartmouth’s ace and he’s delivered so far this season.

“He’s our guy,” Frates said. “When he’s on the mound, we’re a pretty good team.”

Rego went six innings on Wednesday night as Dartmouth beat rival New Bedford 1-0 in Southeast Conference action at Paul Walsh Field.

“My fastball was working very good,” Rego said. “It was locating outside and inside.

“This win was pretty big. We had two straight losses, but we picked it up today.”

Rego allowed two hits and four walks while striking six to move his record to 4-1.

“He’s definitely stepped up,” said Dartmouth senior catcher Donovan Burgo. “Whenever he’s on the hill, I trust that we’re going to go out and win the game. He’s been throwing great this year. It’s a big step up for him. He’s really taken the role and responsibility of it.”

Frates said that Rego’s composure is what separates him from others.

“Nothing bothers him. He’s almost stone face,” Frates said. “You couldn’t tell if we were up by 10 or down by 10. He just focuses on his mechanics. He has three pitches that he can throw for strikes at any time and he’s around the plate. That’s what makes him good.”

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Burgo said that he has developed a connection with Rego over the past year.

“He was new to the team last year so it’s getting to know him,” Burgo said. “We’re very close this year and we’re on the same page with what pitch we can get the batters with.”

New Bedford managed just two hits in the game — the first was a single to right field by Joe Castelo and the other was a single to left field by Trevor Roderiques.

“It’s the same old story,” said New Bedford head coach John Seed. “We can’t hit and you can’t win if you don’t hit. You’ve got to score some runs and we struggle scoring runs.

“For the most part our pitching has been pretty good and our defense has been pretty good, but our hitting hasn’t been up to par.”

In a pitcher’s duel, New Bedford’s Jayden Sylvia allowed just one unearned run off four hits and one walk while striking out eight over six innings.

“Jayden pitched a nice game today,” Seed said. “Their kid did too.”

“It was a well-played game,” Frates said. “It kind of came down to who was going to make the first mistake because there wasn’t much offense.”

Burgo had one of Dartmouth’s four hits in the game to get things going for his team in the top of the sixth inning.

“The kid from New Bedford was throwing great,” Burgo said. “He was getting me with his sliders so I knew he was going to try and come back at me with it and I got a great count with 3 and 1 and I knew the fastball was coming right down the middle so I just took it up the middle and did what I had to do to get on base and we ended up moving the run over and scoring it.”

A sac bunt by Tom Quinn moved curiosity runner Ethan Jason over to second and Jason scored the winning run moments later on an error by New Bedford.

“We gave them a run on a routine play that we should have made,” Seed said.

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WHAT IT MEANS

The win ended a two-game losing streak for Dartmouth (6-3, 2-2 SEC), which is in the midst of playing five games over seven days. New Bedford fell to 1-10 and 0-4 in the SEC. “If we go on a tear, we’re still able to make the playoffs,” Seed said. “We’re capable, but we have to hit. At some point, the bats have to turn around.”

STATS

Rego went 2-for-3 while Burgo and Brady Beauparland each had a hit for Dartmouth.

NOTES

Beauparland and Castelo each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

Dartmouth 1, New Bedford 0

Dartmouth;000;001;0—1

New Bedford;000;000;0—0

WP: Ian Rego; LP: Jayden Sylvia

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Dartmouth baseball beats New Bedford to end two-game losing streak