Dartmouth will return to the NCAA postseason for its second consecutive season.
HANOVER, N.H. -- Dartmouth is headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season after sweeping Penn 2-1 and 1-0 on Saturday afternoon in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series.
It was a real pitchers’ duel as three dominating hurlers -- senior Kristen Rumley, junior Morgan McCalmon and Penn’s Alexis Borden -- commanded the strike zone and battled to the end. It was Rumley and McCalmon, though, who finished on the winning end of the spectrum, but Borden held her own and pitched two complete games.
With the win, Dartmouth takes the Ivy League’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The team will have two weeks to prepare for its next opponent, which will be announced on May 10.
The Big Green took the first game in dramatic fashion and won on a walk-off hit by Alyssa Jorgensen. It was the first time this season Dartmouth won a game when trailing heading into the seventh inning.
Penn took a lead in the second frame on a solo home run by Alexis Sargent.
Borden kept the Big Green off the board until the fifth when coach Shannon Doepking sent out Madison Smith to pinch hit for Jorgensen. Smith had the bases loaded and sent a sacrifice fly out to left field and scored junior Kelsey Miller.
In the seventh, freshman Lourlin Lara singled to the shortstop, followed by a Katie McEachern single to right. With runners in motion, Jorgensen sent a shot over Penn’s left fielder's head to score Lara and take the opening game of the series.
Rumley picked up her 15th win of the season for the Big Green. She tossed all seven innings and allowed one run on six hits with five strikeouts. Borden allowed two runs (one earned) on eight hits with three strikeouts. Neither pitcher allowed a walk.
In the second game, Dartmouth (the designated visiting team) scored in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Rumley. After the run, pitching took over with McCalmon not allowing a hit until a pair in the fourth. McCalmon got into a small jam with runners and second and third after Lauren Li hit the top of the wall for a double. The Big Green got out unscathed with a strikeout to Sargent and Jurie Joyner popped out to McEachern at short.
The Quakers nearly tied the game up in the sixth and seventh with single hits, but neither runner got past second base.
McCalmon allowed four hits in the outing with eight strikeouts. Borden also went the distance and surrendered seven hits.
