Dartmouth wins two out of three games in their series against Brown University to advance to fourth place in the Ivy League, taking Yale University’s spot. The Bears took the last game of the series on Sunday, winning 6-5 due to a walk-off sacrifice fly. Dartmouth built momentum again against Merrimack College on Wednesday, winning 5-2.
Starting pitcher Rachel McCarroll ’25 came into the circle at Brown Softball Field and pitched a complete shutout game. McCarroll only allowed 5 hits and left all base runners stranded.
“We all want to support our pitching staff,” said outfielder Lauren Ben-Ezra ’26. “They show up every single weekend and do a great job.”
Kate Farren ’23 gave her starting pitcher offensive help as she blasted a two-run homer in the top of the fourth inning, making the score 2-0. However, Farren did not stop at one homerun — she hit another one in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 3-0.
Alaana Panu ’25 hit an RBI single in the seventh to bring in another run for the Big Green, resulting in their 4-0 lead. McCarroll pitched an easy 1-2-3 out seventh inning to secure the first win of the weekend for the Big Green.
Dartmouth wasted no time in the second game of the double header as Kelly Beaupre ’24 pounded a three-run homerun in the first.
“We have to have that confidence and know that we prepared for this,” said Beaupre.
During the next inning, Ben-Ezra hit her first career triple to bring in two more runs. She later scored on a wild pitch to extend Dartmouth’s lead to 6-0. Farren struck again as she hit a two-RBI triple to make the score 8-1 in the fourth. Jenna Brown ’25 brought her home with a bunt to make the score 9-1.
With her 2 home runs and 5 RBIs, Farren batted .600 against Brown and was awarded Ivy League Co-Player of the Week on Monday.
Izzy Kam ’24 took the circle for the second game of the series and pitched five innings, only giving up 4 runs. By the end of the fifth inning, the score was 10-6 in favor of Dartmouth.
To ensure that Brown did not shift the momentum in its favor, Beaupre hit another three-run homer in the top of the seventh to make the score 13-7. Beaupre believes that her coaches prepared her and the team well for the series against Brown.
“One thing that we worked on with the coaches throughout the week before was making sure that we could adjust quickly to whatever,” said Beaupre.
In the bottom of the seventh, Brown scored two more runs but McCarroll finished the Bears to ensure a 13-9 Big Green win.
McCarroll pitched for the third time this past weekend, starting the last game of the series due to the limited number of pitchers.
“Proactive recovery is big right now since there are very few of us,” said Stella Bale ’26.
Brown scored first as they led 3-0 by the end of the third inning. The Big Green was awake in the fourth inning and took advantage of a defensive error made by Brown, leading to a surge of Dartmouth hitters. With five singles, the Big Green put five runs up on the board giving them the first 5-3 lead of the game.
“With information passed from batter to batter, we were able to make adjustments and just keep hitting,” said Ben-Ezra.
Brown caught up to the Big Green in the fifth with a two-RBI double to tie the score 5-5. At the bottom of the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Brown was able to hit a sacrifice fly for a walk-off to win 6-5.
Despite this loss, Dartmouth was able to secure a playoff spot in the Ivy League standings, as Harvard University recently swept Yale.
Prepping for their crucial series against Yale this weekend, the Big Green faced the Merrimack Warriors at Softball Park in Hanover on Wednesday. Kam started in the circle to face the Warriors and pitched four scoreless innings, only giving up one hit and striking out four.
The Big Green offense struggled early as they wasted a bases loaded jam in the third inning. But in the fourth, the Big Green was able to score 2 runs off of 2 defensive errors. With the Big Green taking an early lead, McCarroll came in to relieve Kam. After walking the two first batters, McCarroll retired the next three and struck out the side in the next inning.
In the fifth, Farren proved her Ivy League Player of the Week status as she hit a double to bring in another run. Before trying to close out the game in the top of the seventh, the Big Green took two more insurance runs to prevent a Merrimack comeback. With Dartmouth leading 5-0, McCarroll took the circle once again. The Warriors got two runs off McCarroll before she struck out the last batter giving Dartmouth a 5-2 win.
The Big Green will play at 5k Corral Field at Dewitt Family Stadium in New Haven to face Yale in a crucial three-game series. The first game of the double header on Saturday will be streamed in NESN+ and the second game of the double header and match on Friday will be streamed on ESPN+.
