Softball's Magic Number is One Heading Into Season Finale

THIS WEEK IN DARTMOUTH SOFTBALL

Four games are on deck this weekend for the Dartmouth softball team against Harvard with the Big Green needing just one win to clinch the Ivy North Division and host the Ivy Championship Series.

Senior Day — With four games remaining in the regular season, the Dartmouth softball team will honor its two graduating seniors Kristen Rumley and Megan Averitt before Saturday's home finale with Harvard. Both have been instrumental in the success of the squad since arriving in Hanover in 2011.

When building a dynasty a team should be strong up the middle. Last season's Big Green NCAA Tournament team was built on the backbone on its core up the middle: catching (Alex St. Romain), pitching (Kristen Rumley), second base (Kara Curosh) and center field (Megan Averitt). With two of the core four remaining, the Big Green are once again on track to capture their third straight Ivy League North Title and second NCAA Tournament appearance.

Kristen Rumley: Dartmouth's all-time leader in wins (59), appearances (122), games started (89), strikeouts (647), innings pitched (631.2) and complete games (56). Rumley is a two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Year and First Team member. She will go down as the best pitcher to don a Big Green uniform. If Rumley is named the 2015 Ivy Pitcher of the Year, she will be the first player in league history to three-peat this award.

Megan Averitt: Averitt has patrolled the Big Green outfield for 166 games in her career and posts a .223 batting average as a slap hitter with 59 hits. A good runner on the base paths, Averitt is 12-for-14 in stolen base opportunities. As a sophomore, Averitt was named to the All-Ivy Second team and posted a .262 average at the plate. She will go down in the Big Green record books for recording Dartmouth's first hit in the NCAA Tournament against Arizona State.

One is the loneliest number — Dartmouth's magic number is one to clinch its third straight Ivy North Division Title and home field advantage in the Ivy Championship Series. Dartmouth needs to win one of the four games this weekend against Harvard. If Harvard sweeps the Big Green, the Crimson will claim the division title and host the championship series next weekend. The North Division has automatically clinched as the home site of the championship series.

The South is still up for grabs. The first place Penn Quakers control their destiny and need only to take three of four from the Lions to ensure a division title. Princeton is one game behind the Quakers entering the weekend after taking both makeup games against Yale on Wednesday. The Tigers can take the South with a combination of wins + Penn losses totaling eight or seven if they finish 6-0 and Columbia sweeps Penn. Cornell can tie for first, but cannot advance to the championship series. Columbia needs to sweep Penn and have Princeton drop all four against Cornell.

Harvard Preview — The Crimson are looking to shift home field advantage with a pair of wins on Saturday. Harvard needs a clean sweep of the Big Green to take the division and to host the championship series next weekend. The Crimson had a nice start to the season with non-league wins over Wichita State, Villanova, Bethune-Cookman and Loyola Marymount. Out of the six other Ivy contests this season, Harvard has only swept south foes Cornell and Princeton. In the North, the Crimson dropped the final meetings to Yale and Brown. Laura Ricciardone continues to propel the Crimson inside the circle with an 11-6 record and a 2.42 earned run average. Taylor Cabe and Morgan Groom have combined for nine wins as second and third starters. Katherine Lantz has a team-best 26 runs batted in and second-in-command is Emily Gusse with 24. Lantz leads the team with a .370 batting average but watch out for rookie Maddy Kaplan, who is second with a .352 average.

All-Time Records — Harvard holds a 38-17 advantage over the Big Green in the all-time series record. Over the past three seasons, Dartmouth is 8-4 and has won six of the last eight. In the last six seasons, Harvard is 14-10 and the last 10 years, the Crimson are 19-17.

Brown Recap — The Big Green took three of four from the Bears last weekend. Dartmouth got great pitching from Kristen Rumley with a pair of wins and 16 strikeouts. Junior Katie McEachern hit a grand slam in the series finale. The Bears scored eight runs in the third inning of Saturday's second game.

Schedules