After a narrow loss to the College of the Holy Cross Thursday, the softball team traveled to Hanover, New Hampshire to face off against Dartmouth in a four-game weekend series. The Bears (11-24, 3-9 Ivy) opened Ivy League North Division play with four losses to the second-ranked Big Green (10-21-1, 9-3 Ivy) and remain at the bottom of league standings.
Brown 1, Dartmouth 5
The first game of Saturday’s double-header remained scoreless until Dartmouth went up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Bruno was able to hold the Big Green to a one-run advantage until the bottom of the sixth when Dartmouth racked up four more runs, bringing the score to 5-0. Grayson Metzger ’18 responded with a solo home run in the top of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the four-run deficit.
Brown was held to just three hits by Dartmouth starter Breanna Ethridge, who threw a complete game with eight strikeouts.
“After the first game on Saturday, we knew we were close,” said Kaitlin Okimoto ’20. “We just wanted to string hits together because we were really proud of our defense, and we really wanted to up it a little bit on the offensive side.”
Brown 3, Dartmouth 4
The afternoon game unfolded in similar fashion, as Dartmouth gained a one-run lead in the bottom of the first and clung to it. But in the top of the fifth, Okimoto evened the score with a RBI single. The Bears went up 2-1 the following inning with an RBI single from Julia Schoenewald ’17, but Dartmouth evened the score in the bottom of the frame. An error in the top of the seventh brought Sofia Venegas ’19 home to make the score 3-2.
But a walk-off two-run home run by Maddie Damore in the bottom of the seventh gave Dartmouth the victory.
“We adjusted a lot better to the pitcher, and we allowed ourselves to get runs off of consecutive hits, which helped us a lot,” Okimoto said.
Venegas led Brown with two hits, and starter Meghan Wimmer ’19 threw five innings, allowing two runs on six hits.
Brown 5, Dartmouth 13
Annie McGregor ’18 opened Sunday’s double-header with a two-run home run in the first inning, but Bruno struggled to contain the Big Green for the rest of the game. Eight unanswered runs in the first two innings from Dartmouth stunned the Bears until Cat Seitz ’19 knocked a two-run bomb into left center in the top of the fourth. Dartmouth closed the inning with five more runs, bringing the score to 13-4. Despite another home run from McGregor, the game ended in the fifth due to the mercy rule.
Dartmouth took advantage of five errors committed by Brown in the contest.
Brown 5, Dartmouth 7
The final game of the series was dominated by Dartmouth, who took a five-run lead into the fourth inning. Seitz and Wimmer each hit solo home runs to left field, and Okimoto followed with a three-run shot to left center, evening the score at five. The tie held until the bottom of the sixth when Dartmouth surged ahead by two, and Brown had no response in the seventh.
With the 0-4 weekend, Brown falls six games behind the Big Green for first place in the North Division.
“Our team played hard, and we did our best,” Okimoto said. “We’re going to try and come out against Harvard and in the next weekend against Yale. We still think we’re in this and that we can accomplish a lot more.”
The Bears will be back in action Tuesday for a double-header at the University of Rhode Island followed by a four-game series at home against Harvard over the weekend.
“During (the game against URI) we’re going to really have to try to make sure, as a team, we string hits together and play solid defense all around,” Okimoto said.
