Big Green Suffer Two Close Defeats to Harvard

Saturday, April 13

Hanover, N.H.

12:30 PM

Dartmouth College

6-21, 0

Harvard

14-14, 0

Harvard

Dartmouth

Sophomore McKenna Gray

Photo by: Doug Austin

Big Green Suffer Two Close Defeats to Harvard

4/13/2019 7:12:00 PM | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game 1 Box (PDF)Game 2 Box (PDF)Photos by Doug Austin

Dartmouth lost by one run in game one, and two in extras in game two

By: Mike Miezejeski

HANOVER, N.H. – In the rematch of the 2018 Ivy League Championship Series, Dartmouth softball battled in both games but fell, 2-1 and 9-7 in 11 innings, to Harvard on Saturday afternoon.

The Big Green (6-22, 3-8 Ivy) had opportunities to win in both games, while the Crimson (15-14, 8-3 Ivy) pulls into a tie of first place in the conference standings with Penn.

Between games, Dartmouth softball held a ceremony for the 25th anniversary of the program's varsity status. Over 30 alumnae were recognized.

Game one:
It was a pitchers duel in game one between thr duo of Dartmouth's Shelby Wilkison and Madie Augusto and Harvard's Katie Duncan. It was Duncan who edged out the Big Green pair to record her eighth win of the season.

Wilkison threw the first 5.1 innings where she allowed two earned on four hits, she struck out two and walked five batters, while Augusto only allowed one hit in the final 1.2. On the other side, Duncan tossed a complete game with only one run given up on four hits with four K's.

After a scoreless first inning, The Crimson struck first in the second with two outs. Elizabeth Shively drew a walk and Taegan Shaw followed with a double to score the first run of the game.

Harvard added its second run in the third, again coming with two gone in the inning. Kaitlyn Schiffhauer got the offense going with a triple and Meagan Lantz doubled her home to make it a 2-0 advantage.

Dartmouth did not get its second hit of the contest until the seventh inning when Micah Schroder led it off with a triple to right field. Morgan Martinelli then hit an RBI groundout to score Schroder and cut the lead in half.

After the run scored, Schae Nelson doubled to left and Loghan Thomas singled and stole second to put the tying run on third and the winning on second with one out. But a strikeout and groundout ended the game.

Game Two:
The second game of the day lasted nearly four hours and saw Harvard taking the victory, 9-7, in 11 innings. Micah Schroder blasted two home runs to get her total to six on the year, which ties her amount from last season. Calsita Almer picked up three hits and scored two runs, while Taylor Ward mashed a homer in the first and McFadyen sent a long ball in the fourth.

Harvard carried its momentum from the game one win into game two. The Crimson got on the board in a big way with a grand slam in the first inning to make it a 4-0 Crimson lead.

Dartmouth began its trek back in the home half of the first and eventually tied the game. Ward got it started when she went deep for a solo home run.

Almer led off the third with a triple down the right field line and Ward plated the run with a base hit to cut the lead in half. The Big Green were not done yet in the inning, Schroder came up next and launched a straight-away shot to make it 4-3. Finally, with the bases loaded, Tessa Grossman was hit by a pitch to tie the game at four.

Harvard immediately went to work with the bats and took a two run lead in the fourth. The Crimson scored the first run on an RBI single and pulled off a steal of home to take a 6-4 advantage.

McFadyen tied it again with one swing of the bat with a two-run bomb in the bottom of the fourth. It was her second home run of the season.

From there, pitching took over and the bats went silent until the bottom of the seventh. With the score still tied at six, Dartmouth had the bases loaded with one out and could not score a run, sending the game into extras.

There were only three hits combined for both teams from the eighth inning to the 10th and Harvard broke it open with a three-run 11th. The runs for the Crimson scored on a double, a sacrifice fly and a triple.

Schroder started the bottom of the 11th with a solo blast off the scoreboard in center, but the Big Green could not get a hit for the rest of the inning and Harvard took the doubleheader sweep.

The Big Green will look to avoid the series sweep on Sunday when they host Harvard for game three at 12:30 p.m. at the Dartmouth Softball Park.