The Dartmouth softball team encountered trouble on the road Wednesday, as the Big Green dropped a pair of games to the University of Massachusets-Amherst in Amherst, Mass. UMass took the first game 6-0 before winning the nightcap by the mercy rule against Dartmouth 14-6.
The two losses at the hands of UMass (14-12-1) extends the Big Green's (4-15) losing streak to eight games. Dartmouth's last victory came during its spring break trip to Florida earlier this month with a two-game sweep of Central Connecticut on Monday, March 19.
Junior pitcher Angela Megaw '08 said the team's current skid was aided by a difficult non-conference schedule.
"We definitely play a really hard schedule before the Ivy season," she said. "UMass is one of the best teams on the East Coast. We were playing tough competition in Florida. The goal before Ivies is to play the best teams we can."
Megaw added, "We've been having a hard time finishing teams. We lost to Florida State 1-0. They're a great team and we played with them. We're looking for that extra edge to win ball games."
In game one, the Minutewomen rode a no-hitter by sophomore pitcher Bradice Balschmiter, the second of her career, en route to a shutout of the Big Green.
UMass took advantage of two fielding errors by the Big Green in the opening frame to grab an early 2-0 lead. Dartmouth had an opportunity to generate some offense of its own during the top of the second. Alyssa Parker '10 and Ashley Gleason '09 reached base thanks to a pair of UMass errors, but the Big Green hitters could not bring the runners home.
The real damage came during the fourth and fifth innings, as the Minutewomen notched four more runs off Big Green pitcher Stephanie Trudeau '09 to effectively distance themselves from the Big Green.
UMass tallied a lone run in the fifth after adding three runs off two key doubles in the fourth to seal the first victory of the afternoon.
Trudeau was credited with the loss in the pitching circle, dropping her season record to 3-8. UMass's Balschmiter picked up the win for the home side with a season-high 11 strikeouts.
Megaw, although she did not bat against Balschmiter, gave her own thoughts about the UMass sophomore.
"She was throwing a lot of drop balls. We just couldn't get our bats going. She definitely wasn't that overpowering, we just couldn't get it going," Megaw said.
In the nightcap, the Big Green stuck with the Minutewomen in the early part of the contest but eventually succumbed to an offensive explosion by UMass.
In the first, Christy Autin '10 reached second base on a steal after drawing a leadoff walk. Two batters later, Katie Chifcian '09 was hit by a pitch to load the bases, following a single by Nikki Yee '10 at the second spot in the Dartmouth batting order.
With the bases juiced, Parker made contact on a pitch for a sacrifice fly to left field that brought Autin home for Dartmouth's first run of the afternoon. Gleason then connected on a single through the middle of the field for another run, and senior catcher Kelly Fry '07 capped the opening frame scoring with a sac fly of her own to bring Dartmouth's lead to 3-0.
The Minutewomen responded to this pressure with four runs in the bottom of the first to quickly take back the lead, thanks in part to two Dartmouth errors. Following the first error that allowed Amanda Morin to score from third base, UMass' Lauren Proctor connected for a two-run double off Megaw. With the score knotted at 3-3, another Big Green error allowed the Minutewomen to take an early 4-3 lead.
Dartmouth would not go away quietly in the top of the second inning. This time, it was a UMass error during Yee's at-bat that gave the Big Green a window of opportunity to score, and Kalli Lemke '09 ran from second base to home to tie the score at 4-4.
Megaw said the Big Green hitters came into game two with a chip on their shoulders at the plate, which helped generate some runs early on.
"Everybody was pretty mad about the first game. I think it was a chance to redeem themselves, or at least get some respect," she said.
The 4-4 tie was as close to the lead as the Big Green got for the remainder of the game, as the Minutewomen went on to score 10 runs in the subsequent innings to continue Dartmouth's woes.
After pouring on four runs in the bottom of the second, UMass tallied two more runs in the third inning to increase its lead over Dartmouth 10-4. Although Autin and Leigha Clarkson '10 scored runs in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, the Minutewomen tacked on three more runs at the bottom of the fifth inning to end the game 14-6 due to the mercy rule. A regulation game two of a doubleheader in softball lasts seven innings.
Megaw suffered the loss pitching for Dartmouth while UMass freshman Bailey Sanders earned her fourth win of the season.
Dartmouth returns to Sachem Field in Hanover for its first home games of the season with two Ivy League doubleheaders this weekend. The Big Green faces Columbia on Saturday, March 2, at 1 p.m. and the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, March 3, at noon.
