Yale in Town to Open Ivy Play in First Home Games Since 2019

Good To Be Home
After two very abbreviated seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Green are back in Hanover for its first games at Dartmouth Softball Park since a spectular pitchers' duel on May 5, 2019 (Senior Day) that saw the Green defeat Princeton, 1-0. Only five of the players from that team, including both Dartmouth pitchers, remain on the roster, leaving everyone else to enjoy their first-ever home game.

The Big Green may have struggled through a challenging non-conference slate leading up to this weekend, but the team certainly showed improvement along the way and is better prepared because of the caliber of competition. Now a new season begins — conference season — though all but one other team squared off last weekend.

Offensively, Dartmouth is led by senior second baseman Billie McFadyen, hitting .269 with six RBIs and five stolen bases. She is at her best with runners in scoring position with a sizzling .400 average in those situations this year.

Freshman Alaana Panu has shown promise at the plate with a .308 on-base percentage while leading the squad with four doubles and seven runs, not to mention five hit by pitches. Both Izzy Kam and Maddie Katona have been pests at the plate and are expected to be great table setters for the bats in the middle of the order.

On the mound, senior Brooke Plonka has the ability to dominate a game, as evidenced by her stellar 5-0 shutout of Mercer in which she allowed just four hits and struck out 13. Freshman Rachel McCarroll has had her moments as well, particularly her near-no-hitter at Georgia Tech before ultimately falling in a 1-0 defeat.

Overall Record vs. Yale
• Dartmouth is 45-29 all-time against the Bulldogs.
• The Big Green had won five in a row until Yale claimed the final game of the three-game series in 2019, 8-5.
• The longest winning streak in the series for either team was 14 for Dartmouth from 2012-15.
• Since Dartmouth Softball Park opened in 2012, the Green have won 12 of the 16 meetings.
• Overall in Hanover, Dartmouth is 24-15 against the Bulldogs, winning 21 of the last 27 games.

Scouting the Bulldogs
• Yale has lost 10 of its last 11 games with its lone victory coming in the final game of its Ivy League opening series against Harvard last weekend, 4-3.
• The Bulldogs have scored just over two runs per game (32 runs total) while hitting .218 with seven home runs.
• Sam Goodcase is the team's top hitter with a robust .359 average with two long balls, while Maddie Latta has provided the most power with four doubles and two more four-baggers.
• Latta also leads the team in the circle with two of Yale's three wins and an ERA of 4.11 over 32.1 innings.
• Nicole Conway has the other victory and has thrown the most innings (40.0) with an ERA of 5.43.
• The Bulldogs are sixth in the league with a .956 fielding percentage and have thrown out six of 19 base stealers, the best percentage among Ivy teams.

Last Time Against Yale
Dartmouth took of three from Yale three years ago, winning the first two games by scores of 10-2 and 11-3 before dropping the finale, 8-5. Billie McFadyen was 2-for-4 and scored three runs from the top of the lineup in the opener and Micah Schroder had three of the Big Green's 15 hits. Shelby Wilkinson went the distance, scattering six hits and six walks to go with three strikeouts.

The second game ended after six innings due to the run rule as Schroder went 4-for-4 with a double, homer, three runs and three RBIs. Madie Augusto earned the victory with four no-hit innings of relief, striking out five.

Schroder continued her torrid hitting in the finale, going 3-for-4 with another double and three RBIs, but the Bulldogs bit back with three runs in the fourth and fifth to escape Hanover with a win.

Near No-No
Dartmouth ended its spring trip with a doubleheader at Georgia Tech, which entered the twinbill with an 18-9 record. But the Big Green were undaunted and gave the Yellow Jackets all they could handle, particularly in the opener as freshman Rachel McCarroll threw no-hit ball for 6.2 innings in a scoreless duel. But Georgia Tech hit a double just out of the reach of a diving Alaana Panu in left and sent a ball to the fence in center field that barely eluded Jenna Brown to defeat Dartmouth, 1-0. Big Green pitchers have thrown seven no-hitters all-time, including one each of the last two shortened seasons — Brooke Plonka twirled one last year against Tufts with a Dartmouth record 17 strikeouts, and she teamed up with Madie Augusto to hold North Carolina A&T hitless for eight innings in a 2-1 victory in 2020.

Victory in Georgia
The Big Green closed out the UGA Classic at Georgia with a 5-0 triumph over Mercer, getting all the runs they would need in the first inning on a Kate Farren RBI single. Some welcome insurance runs came in the fifth on a two-run double off the bat of Izzy Kam and a two-run triple produced by Billie McFadyen. Brooke Plonka made sure the runs held up, twirling her third career shutout and striking out 13.

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