The weekend wins give Dartmouth (14-21, 10-6 Ivy) its eighth consecutive conference victory and marks the second straight four-game sweep of an Ivy League opponent. Dartmouth remains in second place in the North Division, one game behind Harvard. Yale (18-18, 3-13 Ivy) is in third place in the North division.
Angela Megaw '08, who picked up two pitching wins on the weekend, said the team is starting to feel more confident going into a pivotal four game series with the Crimson.
"We've done a complete 180," she said. "The momentum is going in our direction. If we can roll with it into this weekend, we're looking at winning the North Division. We're in a real exciting place. We know the biggest games are this weekend."
The Saturday nightcap saw a display of power by the Big Green. Dartmouth used back-to-back solo homers in the bottom of the fourth to edge the Bulldogs by a run.
Down 2-1, Fry came to the plate to lead off the inning and jacked a homer over the left field wall to tie the game. The homer was Fry's 14th career blast, giving the senior the all-time school record. Fry hit another shot on Sunday in the second inning of the opening game to increase her overall total to 15.
"We hadn't talked about it all season, but we all knew she [Fry] needed one more," Megaw said. "We were all really happy for her, but we didn't do anything special for her. She got a lot of congratulatory hugs."
At the next at-bat, Alyssa Parker '10 took a pitch and drilled it deep to left-center to give Dartmouth a 3-2 lead.
Megaw was effective in six and one-third innings of work, allowing just one earned run and striking out three batters en route to the win.
In game one on Saturday, the Big Green could not muster many hits off Yale starter Rebecca Wojack, but with pitcher Stephanie Trudeau '09 on the mound Dartmouth did not need to score in bunches. Trudeau tossed a shutout gem, allowing one hit and two walks, all in the fourth inning, while striking out five.
Dartmouth got all the runs it needed in the bottom of the fourth. After Nikki Yee '10 reached second base on a leadoff error by Yale and a sacrifice bunt by Ashley Gleason '09 and Kelly Fry '07 drew a one-out walk, Leigha Clarkson '10 connected on a bases-clearing double to left field, giving the Big Green the 2-0 advantage.
On Sunday, the Bulldogs again could not get past Trudeau, as the sophomore righthander tossed a perfect game through four innings. This allowed the Big Green to knock in six runs across that span. Yale's only runs came off a fifth-inning grand slam by Aracellis Torres. Overall, Trudeau allowed four hits and struck out seven.
Up 3-0 in the bottom of the third thanks in part to Fry's second home run of the weekend, Clarkson scored from third base on a wild pitch and moved Katie Chifcian '09 to second base. Sarah Bankoff '08 then connected for an RBI double, and Bankoff scored off a Christy Autin '10 single to increase the Big Green's lead to 6-0.
The nightcap ended by virtue of the mercy rule, the second time the Big Green has won by the rule in as many weekends. Megaw again had a solid contest, allowing two hits, no walks and striking out four.
"It's really great to dominate a team with the mercy rule," Megaw said. "As a pitcher you're trying not to let them in so you can finish in five innings. If the [Dartmouth] batters are scoring enough runs by the fifth inning, you don't want to let the team down by giving up runs."
Megaw admitted that she turned in a stronger show on the mound in the Sunday contest.
"Sunday's game was better than Saturday's game," she said. "I was pretty happy with my performance. Saturday I was a little bit off but the defense helped me out. I was feeling really good on Sunday, my pitches were breaking well. Saturday my curveball wasn't working well, and that's my out pitch."
The Dartmouth women did most of their damage in a six-run onslaught in third inning. Ahead by two runs after a first-inning homer by Ashley Gleason '09, Dartmouth added some insurance when Autin scored from third on a groundout by Gleason. Immediately following, four straight Dartmouth singles added three runs to the Big Green's run-total, capped off by a two-run double deep to left field by J.J. Wright '10.
The Big Green travels to Boston College on Wednesday, April 25 at 3 p.m. for a non-conference game. In Ivy League play, Dartmouth takes on Harvard on Saturday, April 28 in Cambridge, Mass. and Sunday, April 29 in Hanover.
A spot in the Ivy League Championships is at stake, as Dartmouth needs to take three of four from the Crimson to surpass first-place Harvard in the division standings. Both doubleheaders are at 2 p.m.
