Dartmouth Softball Earns Fifth Ivy Win in Split with Penn

Sunday, April 11

Hanover, N.H.

12:30 p.m.

Dartmouth College

Penn

Dartmouth Softball Swept at Florida Gulf Coast

Dartmouth Softball Earns Fifth Ivy Win in Split with Penn

4/11/2010 4:00:00 PM | Softball

By: Dartmouth

Game One Boxscore
Game Two Boxscore

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth softball team dropped a close, 3-2 game to Penn in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday but it was a different story in game two as the Big Green won, 10-1 in five innings. Senior catcher Leigha Clarkson (Perris, Calif.) went 4-6 with two runs and two RBIs on the day, including blasting her third home run of the season.

In the opening game of the twin bill, Dartmouth (6-18, 5-3 Ivy) took the early lead with a run in the bottom of the second. Molly Khalil (Seal Beach, Calif.) earned a walk to lead off as Megan Everett (Flemington, N.J.) came in to run for Khalil and moved to second on a wild pitch and then to third on a fly out by Alyssa Parker (Spring Valley, Calif.). She came home when Christy Autin (Harwood Heights, Ill.) singled through the left side for the 1-0 score.

The Quakers came back in the third to go ahead with two runs on one hit as both runs were unearned for pitcher Hillary Barker (Duvall, Wash.). Clarkson's long ball in Dartmouth's bottom half of the inning got a run back but in the fourth another unearned run by Penn (11-14, 6-2 Ivy) gave the visitors a 3-2 lead it would not relinquish.

Clarkson led both sides with three hits on four at bats as classmate Nikki Yee (Martinez, Calif.) tallied two hits for the Big Green. Barker went the complete game, having no earned runs while striking out seven.

Chelsea Ott picked up the win for Penn as she went the full seven innings, striking out one while allowing 10 Dartmouth hits.

In the second game the Big Green used a five-run second inning to even the doubleheader at a game apiece. Dartmouth struck first with a single run in the first when Clarkson singled in a run to give the home team the early lead.

Penn tied the contest in the top of the second but it was short-lived as Dartmouth batted around in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead back.

Audrey Kolodziej (Morton Grove, Ill.) led off with a double to right center and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Autin. A single up the middle by Yee, plated Kolodziej before back-to-back hits by Kirsten Costello (Windsor, N.Y.) and Hillary Hubert (Grant Park, Ill.) allowed two more to come across. Hubert moved to third and scored on wild pitches by Quakers pitcher, Taylor Tieman. A walk to Khalil loaded the bases for Parker, who hit an infield single that scored one as Tieman was replaced by Cailyn Hennessy. Behind Hennessy's pitching, the Penn defense held, allowing no more Big Green runs.

Yee began the third with a single to left field, moving around the bases and coming home on back-to-back Penn errors. Three more runs by Dartmouth in the fourth put the game away for good. With two on base for Costello, the senior blasted her third home run of the season as the Big Green took a 10-1 lead.

In the top of the fifth, Penn needed to plate at least one run to prevent the game from ending early but thanks to Dartmouth's defense the Big Green was able to get any advancing runners preventing any scores.

In the circle, freshman Evan Gray (Edmond, Okla.) picked up the win for her third of the season. She put away a season-high seven batters in the complete game. Costello went 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs while Yee, Hubert and Parker each had two hits.

Dartmouth will be back in action April 14, traveling to the University of Connecticut for a single game. On Saturday and Sunday, April 17 and 18, the Big Green comes back to Sachem Field for two days of doubleheaders against North Division foe, Yale.