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Box Score 2 Yale Will Enter Final Weekend Still In Race For North Division Title
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Two swings of the bat went a long way in helping Yale stay alive in the race for the Ivy League North Division title. Madison Sack's three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning lifted the Bulldogs to a 3-2 win over Dartmouth in the first game of a doubleheader. Laina Do then belted a grand slam in the fifth inning of the second game as Yale completed the sweep with a 6-3 win.
"It was fun to take both games in dramatic fashion," said Yale head coach Jen Goodwin. "Madison had a few long balls yesterday that didn't have quite enough behind them, but today she hit it right at the time we needed it. For Laina to come through like a senior to hit her first career home run in the second game was great."
The Bulldogs (8-8 in Ivy play) took three of four games from the first-place Big Green and will enter the final weekend two games behind Dartmouth (10-6). Harvard (9-6) also is in the mix
The Bulldogs have four games with Brown (3-12) next weekend, while Dartmouth and Harvard face off in a four-game series as well. The Crimson also has one game with Brown remaining.
Yale did its damage on Sunday against one of the top pitchers in the league in Breanna Ethridge, who went the distance in the circle in both games.
Etheridge had a no-hitter going into the sixth inning of the first game and was clinging to a 1-0 lead. Do and Francesca Casalino, though, worked out walks, and with two out Sack belted a towering home run over the left-field fence.
It was Sack's team-leading seventh home run, which ties for the third most in a season in school history. It was also the only hit the Bulldogs had in the game.
There were still some anxious moments for Yale. Maddie Damore's RBI double in the seventh pulled the Big Green within one. Dartmouth had the bases loaded with two outs when Goodwin summoned Terra Jerpbak from the bullpen. Jerpbak got Micah Schroeder to ground out to second to end the game.
Yale received an outstanding start from Lindsay Efflandt, who went 6.2 innings and allowed only two runs.
"Our pitchers did their job keeping the Dartmouth hitters off balance and in tight moments they had an extra edge to finish the job," Goodwin said.
The Bulldogs grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first inning of the second game when Shelby Kennedy scored on a wild pitch.
Dartmouth, though, tied it with a run in the third and took a 3-1 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth.
Yale answered in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Rachel Paris was hit by a pitch for the 13th time this season to start the rally. Camille Weisenbach's sacrifice bunt then advanced Paris to second. After Jerpbak walked, Annie Tarte laced a double to right-center that scored Paris. Kennedy beat out an infield single to load the bases, and Do followed with her long homer to left that nearly landed in Johnson Field, the adjacent field hockey stadium.
It was the first homer at Yale for Do, a senior, and the first grand slam of her entire softball career, according to her father.
Jerpbak took it from there in the circle. She set down the final six Dartmouth hitters in order to preserve the win. She yielded only four hits in the game and struck out two to earn her team-leading sixth win.
Yale outhit the Big Green 7-4. Kennedy was 3-for-3 and scored a pair runs. Do and Tarte were each 2-for-3.
"Shelby and Annie were our sparks in the second game to keep the energy going every inning," Goodwin said.
The first two games of the Brown series will be at DeWitt Family Field next Saturday. The first pitch of the first game is slated for 12:30 p.m.
Report filed by Tim Bennett (timothy.bennett@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity
