The loss drops Dartmouth's overall record to 17-16, with 10-6 in Ivy League play.
"We have really been working on playing shut-down defense and eliminating that bad inning and I think we have been successful in doing that as of recently," utility player Alex St. Romain '14 said.
The Big Green's offense struggled right out of the gate. The team could not score in the first six innings, and its two-run rally at the top of the seventh turned out to be too little, too late to pull out the win
"We can hit better than we did," St. Romain said. "We didn't really do a great job of adjusting to the pitchers and learning from our previous at-bats."
Pitcher Hillary Barker '12 took the loss in the first game despite only allowing eight hits in six innings of work. She also recorded five strikeouts, upping her season record to 9-7.
Third baseman Noelle Ramirez '13 was the first Dartmouth player to score in the top of the seventh by making it home on a Boston College error.
Ramirez was shortly followed by Bianca Smith '12, who was pinch-running for designated hitter Molly Khalil '12, and scored on Baker's groundout in the next at-bat.
Only three Dartmouth players notched hits off Boston College pitcher Allison Gage. Ramirez and Khalil both registered two hits in their three at-bats, while catcher Katie Adams '13 contributed with a single in the fifth.
Ramirez has consistently been an offensive force to be reckoned with this season. She's tops on the team with a .351 batting average and 27 runs scored.
"Noelle Ramirez had a couple of hits and continues to lead our team offensively," St. Romain said.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Big Green fell victim to the same problems, as Boston College put five runs on the board before Dartmouth notched its first score in the top of the fifth inning.
Pitcher Evan Grey (6-8) put on a performance similar to Baker's in the first game, holding the Golden Eagles to just eight hits in six innings.
Despite coming away with the loss, Grey leads the team with a 3.35 earned run average.
The Big Green also had a noteworthy performance from center fielder Audrey Kolodziej '11 who had a two-out, two-RBI single in the seventh inning to keep Dartmouth in contention. Offensive production was much more by committee in the second game, as six members of the team were able to get hits, with left fielder Meghan Everett '12 hitting in two of her three plate appearances and driving in the first Dartmouth run in the fifth inning.
As the season starts to wind down the Big Green has a pair of doubleheaders against Harvard this weekend team members will need to refocus after Wednesday's games.
"Sometimes it is really hard to get into mid-week games when we have such important conference games on the weekend, and I think that is what we struggled with today," St. Romain said.
This weekend's four games against the Crimson are of even greater importance, as Dartmouth softball trails Harvard by exactly four games in the North Division of the Ivy League. The Crimson and the Big Green have 14-2 and 10-6 in League records, respectively.
"This weekend is clearly a really important weekend because if we sweep Harvard, we will be tied for first in Ivy League North," St. Romain said. "Because they have this slight edge on us right now, all the pressure is on them this weekend. Our goal is to go out and play our game and have fun, and we know that if we can do that, we will have a really great chance out there."
The Dartmouth softball teams hosts the Crimson this Saturday at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The team will travel to Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday to face Harvard in another doubleheader to wrap up the 2011 regular season in perhaps its final two games of the year.
