Despite being trampled in doubleheaders against the University of Pennsylvania Saturday and Cornell Sunday, the Dartmouth softball team snapped a six-game losing streak yesterday with a 4-3 victory over Vermont in the first game of a doubleheader.
The Big Green is now 6-28 overall and 0-10 against the Ancient Eight.
A come-from-behind victory in the first game yesterday gave a 4-3 win over Vermont.
Vermont, however, came back to strike the Big Green down 8-0 in the afternoon's second game.
In the first game, the Big Green fell behind the Catamounts 3-1 until the bottom of the seventh inning when Dartmouth came from behind to tie the game and force extra innings.
Both Bridget Finn '99 and Julia Doster '97 were brought home at that time by Bess Tortolani '98 and Lauren McQuade '97, respectively, to tie the game.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Captain Karen Hersey '96 scored when Doster lined a double to right field giving the Big Green the victory.
Despite such a stunning turnaround in the first game, the second game proved to be a disappointment for Dartmouth.
The Catamounts shut out Dartmouth 8-0 in the second game as Vermont pounded out 11 hits and scored eight runs whereas the Big Green barely mustered two hits.
The Vermont game was a definite turnaround for Dartmouth compared to its games over last weekend.
"It was a tough weekend because we expected to win all four games," Hersey said.
The Pennsylvania Quakers surely made the Big Green tremble with their 4-3 and 9-3 wins over Dartmouth.
The Big Green leapt out with an early 2-0 lead in the second inning but Penn quickly tied the game 2-2 in the third.
Two single runs, one in the fifth and one in the sixth innings boosted the Quaker lead to 4-2.
Despite another Dartmouth run in the seventh inning, the Big Green was unable to close the gap enough for a win.
"The first game against Pennsylvania was a good game," pitcher Erin Rath '98 said. "But we were not getting hits when we needed them."
"This was a disappointing game," Hersey said. "We definitely had it and let it get away."
The second game against Pennsylvania was more of the same.
Dartmouth only got three runs, while the Quakers sent 11 batters to the plate in the third inning, scoring six runs.
"We just did not execute in the second game," Hersey said.
If the Quakers shook the softball team, the Cornell Big Red definitely made the Big Green feel pretty small with a 6-1 and 11-1 defeat of the Dartmouth team.
The first game was a devastating blow to Dartmouth as the Big Red held the Big Green to just three hits. The only run scored by Dartmouth was in the fourth inning on an error.
"At Cornell we were more into the game and played well defensively, but we were not aggressive enough at the plate and hitting the way we should have," Rath said.
Dartmouth picked up the pace in the second game with six hits but again only one run.
The Big Red brutalized Dartmouth with four doubles and two homers to come up with a total of 11 runs by the end of the game.
"Cornell had a pretty good pitcher," Hersey said. "It was tough. Everyone was trying too hard. Defensively we played well but they just were better at bat than we were. We did not get the breaks."
With only one week left in the 1995-96 season, the Big Green must pick up the pieces for the homestretch with doubleheaders against Harvard and Central Connecticut.
