Softball Splits With Penn to Kickoff Ivy Season

Friday, March 27

Philadelphia, Pa.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

8-12, 1-0

Penn

8-9, 0-1

Dartmouth

Penn

Softball Splits With Penn to Kickoff Ivy Season

3/27/2015 6:46:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

PHILADELPHIA - In a battle of the last two Ivy League softball champions, Dartmouth split with Penn in an interdivisional showdown at Penn Park. The Big Green took the first contest 3-2 while the Quakers snapped a sixth-inning tie and held on for a 5-4 win on Friday.

Dartmouth will head to Columbia for its second set of Ivy League games on Saturday with a record of 8-13 overall and 1-1 in the Ivy League North Division. Penn (9-9, 1-1 Ivy South) is scheduled to meet Harvard on Saturday. Bad weather is projected to hit the New York / Philadelphia area at some point in the morning and may alter the doubleheaders.

Pitching was a strong point for the Big Green as the duo of senior Kristen Rumley and junior Morgan McCalmon allowed five earned runs over 13 innings. Rumley secured the win in the opener for the visitors tossing 5.1 innings and allowing two runs on six hits while fanning four. McCalmon recorded her first save of the season and completed 1.2 remaining frames of hitless ball.

McCalmon, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year took the rock in the second game and allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits in five innings. The junior struck out six of the 25 batters she faced. Rumley took the hard luck deficit when she allowed two runs in the sixth of the finale.

Offense came off the bats of three players on the day, as junior Katie McEachern had five hits overall with two runs batted in. Her first RBI opened up the score in the second inning with a double to left center. In the second game, McEachern hit a solo home run in a near comeback in the seventh-inning trailing 5-3.

Freshman Tiffany Dyson did her part in the first game nailing a fourth-inning home run over the left-field wall that scored junior Kelsey Miller, who doubled to begin the frame.

Penn's Jurie Joyner cut the Big Green's lead with a sacrifice fly RBI that led to a throwing error and a second run during the sequence. From that point, Dartmouth's pitching took over and allowed only two more hits the rest of the way.

Alexis Borden pitched a complete game for the Quakers, but Dyson's home run and lack of offense after Joyner's sac fly caused her to accept the defeat. Dartmouth put 12 runs on base in the first game, but Borden struck out four while allowing three earned runs.

Dartmouth once again took an early lead in game two, this time it was sophomore Karen Chaw scoring her first of three runners in the game with a single to right field. McEachern led off with a double followed by a walk by freshman Lourlin Lara and then a fielder's choice by freshman Maddie Damore.

Penn gained its first lead of the day with three runs in the bottom of the stanza off the bat of Leah Allen, who homered to right field with two runners on. McCalmon and Penn's Lauren Li slowed down the offense until the fifth when the Big Green tied the game with two runs on three hits. It was McEachern once again with a leadoff double to center field and a single by Lara that put the offense in motion. With one out, Chaw sent a hard hit ball over the right fielders head and plated McEachern and Lara.

The Quakers threatened in the fifth with a single by Allen and a double by Joyner, but McCalmon retired the side and got out of a jam by forcing Korrine Raby to pop out to Damore at first.

In the sixth, Rumley came in relief of McCalmon and the Quakers unloaded on the Big Green ace with two run on two hits to take a 5-3 edge.

With the Big Green not giving up, McEachern sent a low pitch to dead center to minimize the deficit, 5-4. Borden completed the inning for her second save of the season. Li picked up the win and allowed three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts in six innings.