Offense stymied in two losses to Dartmouth

In a rescheduled double-header, the Columbia softball team dropped a pair of decisions against Dartmouth at home on Monday.

Dartmouth (10-11, 3-1 Ivy) went up quickly at the start of game one, scoring two runs in the first inning, three in the second, and one each in the third and fourth. With the Big Green up 7-0 after four, the game hit a lull as no team posted a run until the bottom of the sixth, when junior Dani Pineda set the tone for the Lions for the remainder of the inning with a double up the middle.

Sophomore Karen Tulig took Pineda’s cue and followed with a double of her own, advancing Pineda to third. Sophomore Stephanie Yagi then put the Light Blue on the board, bringing home Pineda with a sacrifice fly.
But the Lions (9-17, 1-3 Ivy) could not keep up their momentum, and a seventh-inning Dartmouth homer would close out the scoring, sending Columbia to an 8-1 defeat.

Pineda (2-for-4) and senior Keli Leong (2-for-3) led the Lions at the plate in game one, while Tulig went 1-for-2.

Game two saw a reversal in the action, with Columbia taking an early lead in the bottom of the second. Sophomore Maggie Johnson singled past the mound and was advanced by a Kayla Lechler sacrifice bunt. Sophomore Anne Marie Skylis’ single drove Johnson home and the Lions were on the board.

Despite holding an early advantage, Columbia could not hold the lead, and the Big Green tied the game in the top of the fourth when Johnson, who pitched the whole game for Columbia, walked two batters and second baseman Chantee Dempsey committed a fielding error. In the fifth, the Big Green finished off the Light Blue, 3-1, with a Molly Khalil home run and a Kristen Costello RBI single.

The Lions will next face Marist in a Thursday afternoon double-header in Poughkeepsie.