Hanover's Altitude Plays Large Part in Softball Sweep

Friday, April 3

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

11-13, 0

Princeton

10-14, 0

Princeton

Dartmouth

Hanover's Altitude Plays Large Part in Softball Sweep

4/3/2015 6:47:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. — The long ball played a vital part, as did solid pitching to push the Dartmouth softball team over Princeton, 5-0 and 8-0 (5 innings), in a doubleheader sweep to open the home schedule for the Big Green at the Dartmouth Softball Park on Friday afternoon in Ivy League play.

Sophomore Karen Chaw hit a pair of homers and finished with three runs batted in. Classmate Maddie Damore did her part launching a three-run homer late in game two down the left field line. Junior leadoff hitter Katie McEachern nailed one of the longest and hardest shots over the scoreboard in dead center and added three more hits and finished with four RBIs on the day.

Senior Kristen Rumley (8-10) tossed a beautiful four-hit shutout with seven strikeouts to open the doubleheader. Rumley has not allowed a run in the last 19 innings and mowed down her last three opponents giving up six hits with 21 strikeouts. Junior Morgan McCalmon (4-1) was also impressive in the nightcap allowing three hits with six strikeouts and one walk over four innings. Sophomore Ashley Sissel completed the second game with a scoreless fifth.

In the opener, the game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth frame when Damore singled to left field and was in the passenger seat when Chaw crushed a 2-1 pitch into the snowbanks to give the Big Green a 2-0 lead.

Just like in the fourth, the Big Green's leadoff hitter successfully reached base when senior Megan Averitt bunted to the pitcher. The score doubled (4-0) when McEachern hit her league-leading eighth home run of the season off Princeton starter Shanna Christian. The hosts added another run in the frame when junior Kelsey Miller singled to left field and scored freshman Lourlin Lara from first.

Christian was dealt her fourth loss of the season and allowed five runs on 10 hits in five innings. Ashley LaGuardia pitched a perfect sixth and would stay in the circle to start the finale for the Tigers.

It didn't take much for the Big Green to chase LaGuardia out as she allowed three runs on five hits while recording two outs in the first stanza. McEachern led off with a double to left and then moved to third on a single through the left side by Lara.

Dartmouth took a 1-0 lead on a RBI single by Damore. With one out, the Big Green plated two more runners off the bat of Rumley, who singled to right field and scored Lara and Damore.

Rumley would add another RBI to her stat line in the third with a double to left field to score Chaw, who led off with a single to left field.

Dartmouth would put the game out of reach in the fourth with four runs on three hits. All four runs were the results of balls hits over 200-feet and into the Hanover forest. For the third time in the contest, Dartmouth led off with a hit and this time it was Averitt who, bunted once again for a hit. McEachern reached base on a fielder's choice and both scored on a home run by Damore that was 10-feet away from the left pole. Dartmouth posted its final run on the second half of back-to-back dingers with Chaw nailing her second of the day to center.

LaGuardia fell to 4-9 and was relieved by Meredith Brown who surrendered five runs on six hits in 2.2 innings and Erica Nori who got the final two outs in the fourth.

On the day, Dartmouth allowed eight hits overall by the Tigers and only once allowed a runner to get past second base which happened in the fifth inning of game one after a walk to Skye Jerpack move the runner to the left side with one out.

Dartmouth's sweep of the Tigers catapults the Big Green to 12-13 overall and a two-game lead in the Ivy League North Division over Harvard with a 5-1 record. The Crimson swept Cornell today as both hosts will swap opponents for another set of action tomorrow. Dartmouth will take on Cornell while Harvard entertains Princeton. First pitch is slated for 12:30 p.m. (weather permitting).