The Dartmouth softball team ran into some tough competition this past weekend during a pair of Ivy League road doubleheaders. The Big Green lost a pair to Cornell, dropping game one 7-2 and game two 9-0, in Ithaca, N.Y., and then were swept by Princeton, 6-1 and 5-3, in Princeton, N.J.
The weekend skid drops Dartmouth (6-21, 2-6 Ivy) to third place in the North Division of the Ivy League. Cornell (26-7, 7-1 Ivy) holds the top spot in the South Division with a four-win weekend, and Princeton (15-20, 6-2 Ivy) sits at third place in the South.
The South Division is by far the stronger of the two Ivy softball divisions. As of Monday, the first place team in the North, Harvard with a 4-4 conference mark, would be the fourth place team in the South. After that, the rest of the four-team field in the North all have league winning percentages worse than Columbia, the worst team in the South.
Dartmouth had an opportunity to grab the nightcap from the Tigers, but a four-run sixth inning by Princeton extended the Big Green's losing streak to six games.
Up 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Calli Jo Varner connected on a home run to left field to cut the deficit down to one run. After starter Megaw retired two straight batters, the Tigers used a two-out rally to grab three more runs on three more hits and a Dartmouth fielding error.
"I think Princeton was doing a good job getting hits when they had to and I don't think the defense let us down," senior Kelly Fry '07 said. "We got hits when we needed to in the first part of the game, but not in the second half. We let some opportunities slip in that game."
The Big Green came out to grab an early lead in the late game against Princeton when Ashley Gleason '09 doubled to center field to bring Nikki Yee '10 home from second base for Dartmouth's first run in the third inning.
Up 2-1 in the top of the sixth, Leigha Clarkson '10 hit a solo-shot with two outs to extend the Big Green's lead to two runs over the Tigers. Instead of celebrating its first victory of the weekend, Dartmouth saw its best offensive performance in two days fizzle under the bats of the Tigers in the sixth inning.
In game one at Princeton, the home squad recorded three runs in the second and third innings to take an early lead. It would not be until the top of the sixth inning, with Princeton leading 5-0, that Dartmouth's offense would awaken, but the Big Green could not top the Tigers' run production late in the game.
Fry started the frame off with a single, and then moved to second on a one-out walk to Clarkson. After J.J. Wright '10 loaded the bases with a hard single up the middle, Princteton starting pitcher Jamie Lettire issued another walk to Katie Chifician '09, forcing Fry home. However, the Big Green could not generate any more runs with the bases juiced as the Tigers held on to earn the victory.
Against Cornell, Dartmouth was able to connect for hits in the early game but the Big Green could not translate that into runs on the scoreboard. Overall, the Big Red had eight hits to Dartmouth's seven, but Cornell posted seven runs compared to the Big Green's two.
"They always do a good job with hitting," Fry said. "They got a lot of hits with runners on and hits with two outs. We just weren't doing that."
In the top of the first in game one, Fry got on base after a single and Parker hit a single of her own to put runners on first and second. However, the other Big Green batters could not bring the runners home, keeping the score deadlocked in a scoreless tie.
In the third, Christy Autin '10 hit a triple to the right side to put a runner in scoring position. After Chifican drew a walk to put runners at the corners, Autin scored on a sacrifice fly by Gleason to put Dartmouth ahead 1-0.
The Big Red responded with four runs in the bottom half of the frame. Lauren Battaglia hit a solo homer to center field to start the scoring run for Cornell, and Elise Menaker connected on a RBI-double to give the Big Red the lead. A pair of two-out singles later on added another pair of runs in Cornell's favor.
Parker, who went 3-3 in the early game, hit a home run of her own to cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth inning. But Cornell kept the pressure on and added three more runs by the end of the sixth to push the lead to 7-2.
The nightcap did not prove to be any more favorable to Dartmouth, as the Big Green offense floundered against Big Red starting pitcher Haley Mirrer. Mirrer tossed a three-hit shutout over only five innings of play, striking out four.
Down 3-0 going into the fifth, Cornell hit four singles in a row to add another run to its total. After a two-RBI single by Sarah Ruben made the lead 6-0, Battaglia tattered a pitch off Megaw for a three-run homer, her second home run of the day, to ensure the Big Red victory.
"It was closer in the beginning of the game, but they got a lot of runs in the fifth," Fry said. "We hung with them for a while. They just out hit us in the second game as well."
Dartmouth returns to the field to take on Brown this Saturday at 1 p.m. in Providence, R.I.
