Dartmouth Sweeps Penn 4-1, 12-1 in Home Opener

Friday, April 8

Hanover, N.H.

2:00 PM

Dartmouth College

16-9, 0

Penn

13-13, 0

Penn

Dartmouth

Dartmouth Sweeps Penn 4-1, 12-1 in Home Opener

4/8/2016 6:08:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth softball team defeated Penn, 4-1 in extra innings off junior Karen Chaw's home run in the bottom of the 8th before taking down the Quakers 12-1 in five innings in game two on Friday evening.

With the victories, the Big Green are now 17-9, 6-0 in the Ivy League as Penn falls to 13-14, 2-4 in the conference.

Senior Katie McEachern and Chaw each had solid days at the plate for Dartmouth, as McEachern extended her hitting streak to 15 games.

In game one, senior Morgan McCalmon got the start in the circle where the Norman, Oklahoma native picked up the win to improve to 10-3, allowing just two hits and one run with six strikeouts. Alexis Sargent took the loss for the Quakers to fall to 8-4 on the season.

After two scoreless innings, Penn struck first when Korinne Raby led off the inning with a solo home run to left field for the 1-0 lead.

The contest became quite the pitchers duel between Sargent and McCalmon, as the fourth and fifth innings remained scoreless. The Big Green tied the game when sophomore Lourlin Lara singled to the shortstop with one out. After stealing second, Lara scored when freshman Morgan Martinelli singled through the right side.

In the top of the eight the Quakers went down in order which gave Dartmouth the chance for the walk-off. Lara led off the bottom half of the inning with a triple. Two batters later, Martinelli was intentionally walked which brought up Chaw, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week. The Castro Valley, California native smacked a three-run homer that sailed over the left field wall for her third long ball of the season to win the game for the Big Green for the first walk off victory of the year.

Game 2 of the doubleheader saw a completely different result at the plate for Dartmouth, as the home team tallied 17 hits off Penn's pitching staff.

Sophomore Breanna Ethridge went to the circle for the Big Green, earning her six win of the season to improve to 6-3, while Cedar Spichiger took the loss for the Quakers to fall to 4-3. Once again Penn scored first in the second on an RBI single by Raby. Dartmouth responded in its half of the second when senior Kathy Dzienkowski scored on a Lara double to left-center.

After a scoreless third, the Big Green broke the game open in a big way scoring 11 runs off of 11 hits. Junior Chloe Madill led off the inning with a solo home run, which was her first of the season to give Dartmouth a 2-1 lead. Three batters later, senior Kelsey Miller hit a three-run blast for her first long ball of the season to extend the Big Green's advantage.

Courtney Cuzick came into pitch for the Quakers, but Dartmouth was not finished. With Chaw on first, McEachern hit her team-leading seventh homer of the season, which was a two-run blast to give the Big Green a 7-1 lead. Dartmouth batted around in the inning and loaded the bases which set up Madill for an RBI single.

Later in the inning, with the score 9-1 in favor of the home team, Miller ripped a triple to right-center which plated two more runs. Miller eventually crossed home on a Martinelli triple to right field to end the huge inning for the only undefeated team remaining in conference play.

Ethridge stayed in the game for Dartmouth, retiring the final three batters for the victory in five innings due to the run rule.

The Big Green return to the diamond on Saturday for a doubleheader at home against Columbia at 12:30 p.m.