Dartmouth softball hosted Vermont (6-33-2) Tuesday, winning both games easily to end their season with a 17-20, 5-9 Ivy record.
Senior pitcher Danica Giugliano pitched Game One, the final game of her collegiate career, leading her team to a 3-0 shutout. Giugliano pitched her fifth complete game of the season and fourth shutout. She gave up only two hits and a single walk while striking out seven batters. She ended her final season with a 10-8 record.
"Danica dominates the mound" Alicia Petryk '06 remarked, " she keeps us in games even if we were having trouble producing runs."
The Big Green first scored in the second inning. Kelly Fry '07 started the inning with a single to left field. She then advanced to second on a sacrifice fly by Ashley Thorfinnson '06 and to third on a wild pitch. She reached home on Lauren Folger's '07 double to right field.
Dartmouth would go on to score two more runs in the fifth inning. Kerry Conway '05 and Jess Reiten '06 had back-to-back doubles scoring run one with Reiten receiving the RBI. Jodee Thompson '05 reached first on an error and stole second. With two outs Adrienne Draper '04 reached on an error by the second basemen, scoring Thompson.
Offensively, Conway had two hits in the game. Reiten and Folger each picked up a hit and an RBI. Dartmouth out-hit Vermont 6-2 and also committed no errors while Vermont had four.
Vermont put up a bit more of a fight in the second game. Dartmouth and Vermont were tied at two separate points in the game. However, Dartmouth managed to come out victorious with a final score of 7-4.
Dartmouth struck in the bottom of the first inning. Conway, the first batter, walked to start the inning. She then advanced to second on an error by the catcher. Reiten then hit an RBI single, scoring Conway. She then moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on Petryk's single to right field. Both would then advance on the second wild pitch of the inning.
Fry then singled up the middle and Petryk advanced to third before the inning ended with a fielder's choice.
Vermont would come back in the top of the second, scoring two runs on three hits. But the game was tied 2-2 for only a short time.
In the third, Adrienne Draper '04 hit a solo homerun to centerfield, putting Dartmouth in the lead again. However, the Catamounts responded in the next half inning, scoring one more run. They would then pull ahead of The Big Green 4-3 after scoring another run in the fifth.
In the bottom of the inning, Dartmouth answered back, scoring three runs on three hits.
With one out, Thompson doubled to left center, and scored on a single to center field by Draper. Fry then hit a two-run homerun over the outfield wall, bringing the score to 6-3 and giving Dartmouth the lead.
The Big Green would score one more run in the sixth. Folger doubled to left center and advanced on another error by the catcher. She then scored on a single up the middle by Lisa Caruso '04. The final score of the game was 7-4.
Brittany Copenhaver '04 pitched the complete game, also the final of her collegiate career. She received the win, bringing her record to 4-3.
"Brittany has had an awesome year. She really stepped up as a pitcher, showing a lot of heart while maintaining focus and control, pulling us through many tight situations against some strong offensive teams." Petryk commented.
In both games combined, Caruso and Fry were both 3-5 and Draper was 3-6. Dartmouth had five doubles and two homeruns while scoring 10 runs. They also committed no errors and had a total of 17 hits.
Dartmouth will be losing four key players after graduation this year. Caruso has been a strong and solid defensive second basemen and offensive hitter throughout the season and her Dartmouth career. Giugliano and Copenhaver were instrumental pitchers and also held key leadership roles in the team dynamics. Draper was also an important aspect, both offensively and defensively as both a catcher and an outfielder on occasion.
"This was one of the best teams I have played with," Thorfinnson commented. "The way we all really bonded together and united as a team, despite many setbacks, was something truly incredible. We are definitely going to miss our seniors for both their incredible play and their leadership, but we have a very strong core of girls left."
Reiten expressed similar feelings. "This season was really such a success overall. It was a huge struggle for all of us to begin this year without even a coaching staff, but for us to work so incredibly hard together and mesh like we did was such a testament to every player on this team."
The outlook for next season is all around positive from every player. Thorfinnson commented, "next year I can definitely see us improving even more and posing a threat to many teams who won't really see it coming."