Big Green Host Yale In Penultimate Home Series

GAMES 33-36
Dartmouth Big Green (16-16, 10-5 Ivy League) vs.
Yale Bulldogs (6-12, 10-27 Ivy League)
Location: Hanover, N.H. – Dartmouth Softball Park
Date: Saturday, April 28 doubleheader starting at 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 29 at 12:30 p.m.

THIS WEEKEND'S SERIES
The Dartmouth softball team enters the final two weeks of the regular season this weekend, hosting Yale in a three-game series beginning on Saturday afternoon.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
Yale enters the series in seventh place in the conference after taking two games from Brown last weekend at home. While the Bulldogs have only won six Ivy League games, the pitching staff is second in the league in team ERA with 3.42 and their leading pitcher, Francesca Casalino, is sixth individually with a 3.20 ERA. Through 61.1 innings pitched, Casalino has allowed 50 hits and 35 runs with 48 strikeouts. Phylicia Wilkov is leading the Yale offense with a .333 batting average. Freshman Sydney Grobman is second on the team in batting average with .327, she has 34 hits including two doubles, one triple and three home runs including 11 RBI. In conference action Yale has only been able to grab a single win over Harvard and Columbia, with two wins against Cornell and Brown and has been swept by Princeton and Penn. This is the final series of the season for the Bulldogs.

LAST TIME AGAINST YALE
In last April's four-game series in New Haven, the Big Green were only able to take one win off the home team, with a 6-3 win in game one. The series finale ended with a 6-3 win for Yale. After taking a 1-0 lead in the first, Dartmouth responded by tying the game in the third, before taking the lead in the fifth on a triple from Lourlin Lara that batted in two runners. Those were the only runs the road team would score in the game as the Bulldogs scored five runs off three hits in the bottom of the inning to take the 6-3 lead. Yale was in position to score again in the sixth with the bases loaded, but Breanna Ethridge was able to get out of the jam, stranding all three runners.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green are coming off a big win over Harvard on Sunday afternoon, 3-1 in Cambridge. After falling in the first two games against the Crimson, Dartmouth needed a win in the series finale against the league-leaders. The road team took the lead with just one hit, a three-run homer in the first inning from freshman McKenna Gray. Two base runners had walked before Gray came up to bat, and the Big Green would only record one more hit the rest of the game, but the game-winner was already sealed. Harvard grabbed a run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double from Erin Lockhart, batting in her teammate Maddy Kaplan. The Crimson would not score any more runs as Dartmouth's Heather Turner closed out the game allowing just one hit.

LEAGUE LINES
This weekend holds the final regular season games for Columbia, Harvard, Yale and Penn as the rest of the conference wraps up next week with Brown at Dartmouth and Cornell at Princeton. Currently the Crimson hold first place in the conference with a 13-5 Ivy record as they travel to face the Bears Saturday. The Lions are the only other squad in close contention to play in the Ivy League Championship Series, currently in third place with an 11-7 mark in conference play and playing the Big Red on the road this weekend. The Big Green lead the Ancient Eight in team pitching stats with an overall ERA of 3.26 and currently hold second place in the conference overall. The last two weeks of the regular season will solidify the standings for who plays in the Ivy League Championship Series starting May 12, as the top two teams face off and the No. 1 team will host the games.

WATCH THE ACTION
All three of this weekend's games will be broadcast on the Ivy League Network. The ILN is available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN App for Android and Apple devices for subscribers. Live stats will be provided by DartmouthSports.com.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Big Green host Brown in a three-game series for the regular season finale starting Saturday, May 5 at 12:30 p.m.

Schedules