Dartmouth Splits Day Two of Holy City Showdown

Saturday, February 23

Charleston, S.C. (College of Charleston)

11:00 AM

Dartmouth College

2-1

Radford

5-4

Radford

Dartmouth

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth Splits Day Two of Holy City Showdown

2/23/2019 8:34:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Radford Box (PDF)C of C Box (PDF)

The Big Green shutout Radford and were narrowly edged by C of C

By: Mike Miezejeski

CHARLESTON, S.C. – On day two of the Holy City Showdown at the College of Charleston, the Dartmouth softball team earned a split against Radford, winning 7-0, and C of C, where they fell 7-6. Dartmouth is now 2-2 on the season, while Radford drops to 5-4 and the College of Charleston improves to 6-7.

Vs. Radford
A combined shutout from two freshmen pitchers gave Dartmouth a 7-0 win over Radford in game one.

Madie Augusto (1-0) threw 5.1 shutout innings, striking out six and giving up just three hits in her first career start for the Big Green. Brooke Plonka came in relief and did not allow a hit while striking out two, maintaining the shutout over the final 1.2 innings. Radford only had six runners on base for the entire game.

Bryce West stayed hot at the plate, going 2-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Morgan Martinelli went 2-4 with two runs scored, while Tessa Grossman also drove in two runs and scored one. Billie McFadyen collected her first hit for the Big Green, while Taylor Ward, Calista Almer, Abby Shipley and Emily Lipsett each had one hit.

Dartmouth's offense wasted no time getting across the plate, scoring three in the first inning. With McFadyen on third and Martinelli on first, West continued her torrid start with a two RBI triple and scored on the same play thanks to an error to give the Big Green an early 3-0 lead.

After Grossman and Shipley each reached base to begin the second, Lipsett singled up the middle and an error by the Radford center fielder allowed Grossman to score, extending the Dartmouth advantage to 4-0.

The final three runs crossed the plate in the third. Ward, Martinelli and West all singled to load the bases with nobody out, setting up Tatyanah Castillo, who hit an RBI groundout to third base. With West and Martinelli on second and third, Grossman came through, driving in both with a double to left center to bring the score to 7-0.

From then on, Augusto and Plonka did their job in the circle and completed the shutout.

At the College of Charleston
A big fifth inning for the College of Charleston was all they needed to get by Dartmouth on its second game of the day.

Morgan Martinelli went 3-4 at the plate with an RBI double and two runs scored. Billie McFadyen and Micah Schroder each collected two hits and an RBI for the Big Green and Bryce West drove in a run with a base hit.

Just like in game one, Dartmouth scored in the first inning, this time with two outs. Ward got on base with a double to center and Martinelli followed her with an RBI two-bagger to bring across the first run. After Schae Neslon singled to advance Martinelli to third, some smart base running came into play when Nelson stole second, forcing an error, allowing Martinelli to score to make it a 2-0 Big Green lead.

C of C got right back into the game in the bottom half of the first thanks to a two RBI single, tying the game at two after one.

Scoring came again in the fourth for both sides. Dartmouth had its chance first and plated two runs, again with two outs. Tessa Grossman singled and stole second and Calista Almer reached on a base knock to put runners on the corners. Almer then swiped second base, forcing another C of C error, bringing in Grossman. The second run of the inning came when McFadyen singled in Almer from second to make it a 4-2 Big Green lead.

The Cougars retook the lead in the home half of the fourth, scoring four runs. They did it on a single, sacrifice fly, double and a Dartmouth error, going ahead 7-4 after four innings.

Dartmouth scored in the sixth on an RBI single from Schroder and plated one more in the seventh when West drove in Martinelli to cut the deficit to 7-6. But the Big Green grounded into a double play to end the game.

Dartmouth concludes the Holy City Showdown on Sunday morning when they take on Iowa State at the College of Charleston at 9 a.m.