The Dartmouth softball team found mixed results in the opening of Ivy League play this weekend at Sachem Field. Despite snapping an eight-game losing streak with consecutive 1-0 wins over Columbia on Saturday, the Big Green was routed by the University of Pennsylvania 14-0 in a five-inning game one and 11-4 in the nightcap on Sunday.
The weekend split puts Dartmouth (6-15, 2-2 Ivy) tied for first with Harvard in the North Division. Penn (14-10, 6-2 Ivy) is second in the South Division behind Princeton, while Columbia (11-16, 2-6 Ivy) sits in last place.
"We were obviously happy with Saturday. It was great to get a sweep," Angela Megaw '08 said. "It was exciting to get those runs and get the momentum moving in the right direction. The next day we were a little flat from the day before. Penn brought their bats and we couldn't keep up."
The nightcap against Columbia came down to the wire as the two teams went into extra innings in a scoreless tie. With two outs in the eighth inning, Christy Autin '10 drew a walk to put the potential game-winning run on base for the Big Green. At the next at-bat, Nikki Yee '10 crushed a stand-up triple to center field, bringing Autin home to give Dartmouth the 1-0 win.
Dartmouth had its chances earlier in the game to put some runs on the board. In the second, Alyssa Parker '10 bunted successfully, moving Kelly Fry '07 to second base and Katie Chifcian '09 drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. However, a strikeout and a double play got the Lions out of the jam.
Game one, on the other hand, did not need extra innings to determine a winner. In the fifth inning, Ashley Gleason '09 got into scoring position after hitting a one-out double. The senior Fry then slapped an RBI single down the left-field line to bring Gleason in and post the only run of the day for both squads.
From then on, Stephanie Trudeau '09 and the rest of the Big Green defense kept the Lions in check, as the sophomore pitcher earned the win with a three-hit, five-strikeout performance.
Sunday saw a complete reversal of fortunes for Dartmouth, as the limited offensive output from the previous day came back to haunt the Big Green. On Saturday, Dartmouth pulled out wins despite connecting for only seven hits in two games. Against Penn, the Big Green had five hits in game one and 12 in game two, but the squad could not match the production of the Lady Quakers, who racked up 26 hits and 25 runs.
Despite the low hit total against Columbia and Penn, Megaw was optimistic about the production at the plate, especially in game two against the Lady Quakers.
"The key [against Penn] is in the last game we started to break the slump and get our bats going. Hopefully we can roll with it into next weekend. There was something standing in the way of our offense the last couple of games," she said.
Penn's eight-run second inning effectively put the nightcap out of reach. After retiring the first batter on a groundout, Megaw ran into trouble as the Lady Quakers knocked home six straight runs before the junior righthander struck out Stephanie Reichert. The next batter, Penn's Christina Khosravi cranked a two-run homer, her second jack of the afternoon, to cap the scoring in the frame.
The Big Green responded with single-run innings in the bottom of the second and third on RBIs by Clarkson and Fry, respectively. With the score 9-2 in the fifth, Dartmouth notched two more runs, but after that the Big Green could not turn its hits into runs as the Lady Quakers secured the doubleheader sweep.
The early contest against Penn ended disastrously and early. The game was called in the fifth due to the mercy rule after the Lady Quakers poured on 14 runs and shut out the Big Green offense.
After going up 1-0 in the first, Penn tallied 11 runs in the second and third innings off Trudeau to bury the Big Green.
Penn's Melissa Haffner hit a solo homer in the second to start off the barrage, and Khosravi capped the scoring with a two-run homer with two outs in the inning. In the third, Dartmouth got two outs unscathed, but Penn still managed to put five runs on the board.
Megaw and the rest of the Big Green knew Penn had a potent offense going into the contests on Sunday.
"Penn came ready to swing," Megaw said. "They've been scoring that many runs in all their ballgames. They're a bunch of really good hitters. Steph [Trudeau] and I both came out pitching well, they were just hitting some of our pitches. We knew that coming into the game it was going to be a battle of the bats. It was up to us to hit the ball also."
The Big Green plays on Wednesday, April 4 with a doubleheader at Providence College at 2:30 p.m.
