Dartmouth Softball Gives Hanson First Home Wins

Wednesday, April 6

Hanover, N.H.

3:00 PM

Dartmouth College

SACRED HEART

Dartmouth Softball Gives Hanson First Home Wins

4/6/2011 8:12:00 PM | Softball

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth softball used a grand slam home run by freshman Alex St. Romain (Chatham, N.J.) in the bottom of the seventh to tie the first game of a doubleheader against Sacred Heart on Wednesday. Hillary Hubert singled to score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth as the Big Green picked up the first win, 10-8. In the second game, Dartmouth put eight runs across in the bottom of the second enroute to a 9-4 victory in a shortened game due to darkness.

Despite the cold, rain, snow and hail, the two wins improved the Big Green to 9-12 as head coach Rachel Hanson picked up her first two wins at home. SHU fell to 16-14 on the season.

In the opening game both teams put runs across in the first inning and then each scored three more in the second and third frames to find themselves tied at four.

Sacred Heart put five across in the fifth and seventh innings to take what looked to be an insurmountable 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

The Big Green began its half of the seventh with a one-out walk being issued to Noelle Ramirez (Pompton Plains, N.J.) to put the first runner on. Hubert (Grant Park, Ill.) then singled through the left side, advancing Ramirez to second. An SHU error put Hillary Barker (Duvall, Wash.) on as Hubert moved to third and Ramirez scored. Another walk had Katie Adams (Kent, Wash.) going to first as Barker moved to second and Hubert to third, setting up St. Romain who blasted the ball over the left field fence to knot the game at 9-9.

Using the international tie breaker rule that puts a runner at second to start the extra inning didn't help the Pioneers as Big Green relief pitcher Kat Hicks (Templeton, Calif.) got one strikeout before giving up a hit that put runners at second and third. But Hicks was able to get two groundouts as it became Dartmouth's game to lose.

Morgan Wharton (Binghamton, N.Y.) was put on second in the Big Green's bottom half of the inning before Audrey Kolodziej (Morton Grove, Ill.) reached on a one-out walk to give Dartmouth two runners on. A double-steal put the winning run at third as Hubert singled through the right side to plate Wharton and give Dartmouth the 10-9 victory.

Hubert and Adams both tallied three hits with Adams and St. Romain scoring two runs each. St. Romain was tops with five RBIs. Evan Gray (Edmond, Okla.) began the day in the circle, going 4.1 innings with three strikeouts. Hicks came on in relief as she picked up the win while garnering six strikeouts.

In the second game of the doubleheader, neither side was able to put runs across through the first two innings but Dartmouth broke through in the second with eight runs on eight hits.

Three straight singles by Adams, St. Romain and Barker loaded the bases. Meghan Everett (Flemington, N.J.) slapped an infield single as Adams scored the first run of the frame. A throwing error by the Pioneers pitcher allowed Kolodziej to reach base as St. Romain and Barker each scored. A single by Hubert to left field had her move to second while Everett and Kolodziej each came around. Ramirez kept the hitting going with a triple to left field as Hubert scored. Adams came up for her second at-bat of the inning and homered to right center, getting two RBIs for the effort.

The Pioneers got two of the runs back in the third when Jade Bowins had an in-the-park home run. In the fourth, two more runs crossed the plate for the visitors as SHU had cut the lead to 8-4.

In the bottom of the fifth, St. Romain and Barker each recorded a single and were at first and second when the game was suddenly called due to darkness.

Ramirez, Adams, St. Romain, Barker and Everett each had two hits in the game with Kolodziej leading the team with two RBIs. Barker got the win and improved to 12-9 on the season.

The Big Green will be back in action this weekend, hosting Princeton and Cornell in two days of Ivy League doubleheaders. Dartmouth takes on the Big Red, Friday at 2 p.m. before squaring off with the Tigers on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.