After a busy weekend of Ivy League softball, both Dartmouth (18-14, 9-3 Ivy) and Cornell (31-7, 10-2 Ivy) managed to maintain significant division leads.
The Big Green battled Brown in doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday and only dropped the first of four games. Game one was a pitching duel between the Bears’ Michelle Moses and the Big Green’s Devin Lindsay. Moses lasted five and one-third innings, and while she gave up nine hits, she managed to limit Dartmouth to just one run—a solo homer by Alyssa Parker. Although Lindsay pitched a four-hit gem over her seven innings of work, she picked up a loss as her team fell 2-1.
Dartmouth had another fantastic pitching effort in the follow-up outing from freshman Hillary Baker, who pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout while fanning seven batters. The Bears allowed only four hits, but four errors ultimately led to their demise as they dropped the contest 4-0.
Brown settled for a split on Saturday but was swept by Dartmouth on Sunday. The Big Green edged the Bears in game one, 5-4, after jumping ahead to an early 5-0 lead in the first two. The pitching, led by Lindsay and Baker, was sufficient, limiting Brown to only four runs on five hits. Catcher Leigh Clarkson led Dartmouth offensively with a three-run bomb to right field in the bottom of the first inning.
In the final game of the series, Dartmouth vanquished Brown in a five-inning slugfest. The Big Green posted seven runs in the first, beginning with a solo blast to right field by Kirsten Costello. Brown’s Trish Melvin was charged with the loss for surrendering seven runs in just two-thirds of an inning of work in the 11-2 loss to Dartmouth. With the series win, the Big Green pushed their first-place lead in the North Division to three games over Harvard and Yale.
In the South Division, Cornell jumped out to a four-game lead over second-place Princeton after demolishing Penn in back-to-back doubleheaders over the weekend. A six-run fourth and a four-run fifth ended game one in the fifth inning as the Big Red smacked 15 hits, 11 of which came off of southpaw Jessie Lupardus. Starting pitcher Elizabeth Dalrymple picked up her 12th win on the season as Cornell cruised to an 11-3 victory.
In the second contest, Penn’s offense looked more alive, plating seven total runs. Nevertheless, Cornell’s bats overpowered Quaker pitching and scored 10 runs in the first three innings of the game en route to a 10-7 win. The Big Red’s Ali Tomlinson improved to 11-4, allowing just two runs and striking out four in six innings of work.
The storyline changed little on Sunday as Dalrymple was on target again for Cornell in a complete-game effort, striking out eight while limiting Penn to only one run. The Big Red’s bats strung together eight hits to bring home four runners and defeat the Quakers 4-1.
In the finale of the four-game set, Penn’s offensive showing was futile as the Big Red clouted three home runs and fifteen hits to plate 13 runs. The Quakers picked up four runs off Tomlinson but still fell by a nine-run margin as Cornell completed the weekend sweep.
Harvard and Yale were scheduled to compete in a doubleheader on Saturday, but rain forced a postponement. On Sunday the weather was more cooperative, and Harvard fell short in both ends of the regularly scheduled doubleheader. In the first game, the Bulldogs posted a seven-run fourth inning on five hits, carrying them to a 7-4 win. Harvard was unable to figure out Yale starter Rebecca Wojciak and only scored one earned run off her in seven innings.
In game two, Yale put together one run on three hits in the first inning and three runs on four hits in the third. The Crimson couldn’t match the Bulldogs’ offense and only managed two runs in the bottom of the seventh as Deanna DiBernardi picked up her sixth win of the season for Yale.
The Bulldogs are now tied with the Crimson for second place in the North Division.
