Softball Heads to the Big Apple to Battle Columbia

Friday, March 31

New York, N.Y.

12:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Columbia

Kate Farren announced as a starter versus Penn

Photo by: Doug Austin

Softball Heads to the Big Apple to Battle Columbia

3/30/2023 1:26:00 PM | Softball

ESPN+ (Friday Game 1)ESPN+ (Friday Game 2)ESPN+ (Sunday)Int'l Stream Live Stats Notes (PDF)

The Big Green take on the Lions for their second Ivy League series of the season

By: Francis Forte

HANOVER, N.H. — The Dartmouth softball team heads to New York City for its second Ivy League series of the season. The Big Green enter the weekend as the only team in the Ivy League with a perfect conference record and look to build off a strong start against Columbia in the Big Apple.

SCHEDULE CHANGE
Dartmouth's series against Columbia will now open with a doubleheader on Friday and conclude on Sunday, due to forecasted inclement weather in New York City.

The series will begin this Friday, March 31 with a pair of games starting at 12:30 p.m. The final game will take place as originally scheduled on Sunday, April 2 at 12:30 p.m. The three-game slate was originally set to begin on Saturday.

LAST TIME OUT
The Big Green opened Ivy League action last weekend against the Penn Quakers. Dartmouth was tested by its opponent throughout the team's first weekend in Hanover. Late-game heroics from Alaana Panu in the opening and closing games of the series fueled the Big Green to a conference sweep of the Quakers.

Panu recorded a pair of walk-off hits over the weekend. She opened the series with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh to give Dartmouth a 6-3 win. After a 9-1 run-rule win in game two, Panu came up large again to conclude the series. She recorded a two-RBI walk-off single to lift Dartmouth to a 5-4 win.

Kelly Beaupre was a key difference maker for Dartmouth, recording a trio of home runs over the weekend. The junior utility player's strong play in the final game of the series helped lead Dartmouth to victory, as she recorded a pair of home runs, three RBIs and the winning walk-off run.

Rachel McCarroll pitched a pair of complete-game victories for the Big Green. The sophomore improved to 7-6 on the season with her performances against the Quakers.

Stella Bale and Peyton Kanaly allowed just one run in a combined pitching effort to help Dartmouth to a 9-1 win in game two of the series.

ALAANA PANU: IVY LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Panu's stellar performances throughout Dartmouth's series against Penn was honored accordingly by the Ivy League. The sophomore earned Ivy League Player of the Week honors, as announced by the conference on Monday, March 27.

The sophomore left fielder finished the weekend with a batting average of .545, which led the Big Green and recorded seven RBIs and two stolen bases.

Panu is tied for the league-lead in RBIs in conference play, despite playing three less Ivy League games than Madi Mays and Trina Hoang of Harvard as of March 27.

Her stats, while impressive, do not fully illustrate Panu's impact on Dartmouth's series against the Quakers. A native of Los Gatos, California, her clutch factor was crucial to the Big Green's success over the weekend.

SCOUTING COLUMBIA
Columbia enters the weekend with a record of 7-14. The Lions are .500 in Ivy League play with a 3-3 mark, including a 2-1 record at the Columbia Softball Park.

The Lions last took the field for a midweek contest against Iona on the road. Columbia dropped a high-scoring contest to the Gaels by a score of 10-7.

The team's last Ivy League series saw the Lions go 1-2 against the Yale Bulldogs on the road last weekend. Columbia dropped both games of a Friday doubleheader on March 24 before bouncing back with an 8-4 win to close the series.

A trio of Columbia players hold batting averages above .300. Jaden Hill leads the team with an average of .368 and has recorded a pair of home runs and nine RBIs. Megan Ryono leads the Lions with an on-base percentage of .411, the eighth highest in the Ivy League. Bubba Gleaves has recorded 13 RBIs and six doubles through 21 games.

Jordan Hill and Raquel Reeves have handled most of the pitching duties for the Lions this season. Hill has pitched 67.2 innings for Columbia and holds a record of 4-7, while Reeves has thrown 44.2 innings and enters the weekend with a 2-4 record.

HISTORY AGAINST THE LIONS
Dartmouth looks to continue its historic success against Columbia, entering this weekend's series with a 32-20 all-time record.

Last season, the Big Green went 2-1 against the Lions in Hanover. Dartmouth won the first and final games of the series, while Columbia won game two in a close contest.

Columbia swept Dartmouth the last time the two teams faced off in New York City. The Lions won three-straight games against the Big Green from March 23, 2019 through March 24.

Dartmouth looks to improve upon its 4-6 record in the last 10 meetings between the teams, dating back to 2017.

AROUND THE IVY LEAGUE
Dartmouth leads the Ivy League heading into the weekend as the only team without a conference loss. Princeton follows closely behind with a conference record of 5-1.

The Big Green and Cornell are the only two programs in the Ancient Eight to have just one conference series under their belts. Dartmouth will play a conference series every weekend until the Ivy League tournament, slated for May 11-14.

This weekend, Yale will head to Ithaca, New York to take on Cornell, Brown travels to Harvard, Princeton travels to Penn and the Big Green head to New York to battle Columbia.

The Big Green look to continue their winning ways this weekend against Columbia to improve their chances for a postseason bid. The top four Ivy League programs will qualify for the conference tournament in May. The winner of the tournament will represent the conference in the NCAA Regional Round.

FOLLOW ALONG
The Big Green's games against Columbia will take place in New York City. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+ and Stretch Internet internationally and live stats links can be found on the softball team's schedule page.