Big Green's Upset Bid Falls Short at No. 15 UCLA

Sunday, March 26

Los Angeles, Calif.

1:00 PM

Dartmouth College

1-18-1

UCLA

24-8

Dartmouth

UCLA

Big Green's Upset Bid Falls Short at No. 15 UCLA

3/26/2017 4:16:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

By: Dartmouth

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Dartmouth softball team competed well, but eventually fell to No. 15 UCLA, 4-2 in its final contest of an 11-game west coast road trip on Sunday afternoon.

The Big Green are now 1-18-1, while the Bruins improve to 24-8.

Dartmouth sent Breanna Ethridge to the circle after the Loganville, Georgia native earned her first win of the season against a talented UC Riverside squad the day prior.

In their first trip to the dish, the Big Green were able to capitalize on an early error by UCLA's shortstop to get Calista Almer aboard. After a walk by Alyssa Jorgensen, Maddie Damore laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners into scoring position. Micah Schroder flied out to centerfield, but hit the ball hard enough for Almer to cross home plate for the first run of the ball game.

The Bruins struck back in the second with pair of runs via Zoe Shaw's single to the right side which plated one, as a fielding error allowed Bubba Nickles to come home safely.

A scoreless third gave way to the fourth, where UCLA added another run to its 2-1 lead. Paige Halstead led off with a single and was pinch ran for by Imani Johnson. After stealing second, Johnson advanced to third on Rachel Garcia's single and scored on a fielding error.

Dartmouth got a run back in the top of the fifth when Alyssa Jorgensen singled to the shortstop, allowing Claire Bird to score, cutting the deficit to 3-2.

Unfortunately, this would be as close as the Big Green would get to upsetting the nationally ranked Bruins' squad. UCLA plated one more run the bottom of the sixth when Shaw grounded out with the bases loaded which scored Halstead for the insurance run.

In the top of the seventh, Almer hit a two out single to left field, but Dartmouth was unable to spark a late game rally as Jorgensen grounded out to third to end the game.

The Big Green return east this weekend and open up Ivy League play next Friday with a pair of games at Columbia before heading to Penn on Saturday. All four games can be seen live in HD on the Ivy League Digital Network.