Pictured: Harvard will take on Cornell for the Ivy League
title next weekend.
Photo Courtesy: Gil Talbot
HANOVER, N.H. – The Harvard softball team wrapped
up its regular season schedule with a sweep of Dartmouth, downing
the Big Green, 7-1 and 6-5 (8), Sunday afternoon in an Ivy League
North doubleheader. The Crimson ends the regular season with an
overall record of 26-21 and an Ivy North-best mark of 17-3 while
Dartmouth ends its season with a 14-27 overall record and an 11-9
mark in Ivy play.
Four runs in the top of the third gave the Crimson all the
offense it needed in game one, thanks to two long-balls in the
inning. Ellen
Macadam started the frame with a solo shot to left center and
after Whitney
Shaw walked and Jessica Ferri
singled to left, Jennifer
Francis belted a homer to right center to give the hosts a
four-run cushion. Shaw and Ferri picked up run-scoring base-hits in
the next frame to up the Harvard lead to 6-0 and Olivia Piccione
singled home Jessica Pledger
in the fifth for Harvard's seventh run.
Julia
Moore went the distance for the Crimson, earning her fifth win
of the season. The sophomore scattered five hits and allowed just
one run over seven innings, striking out four in the process.
Macadam went 3 for 4 from the plate with two runs scored and an RBI
while Francis led the team with three RBI on the game. Shaw and
Ferri each collected two hits in game one.
The Big Green bats showed up early in game two as the hosts
plated three runs in the first, thanks in part to a Leigha Clarkson
two-run home run. Melissa
Schellberg started the scoring for the Crimson in the second
game, scoring Jane Alexander on
a single to right in the Harvard fifth. Down 3-1 entering the final
frame, Harvard plated four runs to grab a 5-3 lead going into
Dartmouth's final at-bat. Mari Zumbro led
off with a double and pinch-runner Kassy Shiotani
scored on the ensuing Alexander double. Macadam plated Alexander
with an RBI single and Shaw blasted a two-run shot to center to
help Harvard to the late lead. Dartmouth knotted the score with two
runs in the bottom of the seventh, but Zumbro struck again with an
RBI single in the top of the eighth and Margaux Black held
the Big Green hitless to seal the 6-5 win.
Black picked up the win for Harvard, her fifth of the season,
going four innings and allowing just two runs on three hits. Shaw
finished the game 2 for 4 with two RBI while Zumbro and Alexander
also picked up a pair of hits in the win.
As the Ivy League North Division champion, the Crimson earns a
berth in the Ivy League Championship where it will face Cornell in
Ithaca, N.Y., in a best-of-three series, beginning Saturday.
