ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team hit five home runs, including a pair by junior
Bridgette Rooney, in a Saturday afternoon doubleheader split with Dartmouth at Niemand-Robison Field. The Big Red hit four long balls in a 13-4 triumph in game one, while the Big Green pounded out 17 hits in game two en route to a 16-1 win. Both games lasted the minimum five innings. Cornell is now 7-29 (3-11 Ivy), while Dartmouth is 7-24 (4-10 Ivy).
Game One
Cornell slammed four home runs, including a three-run walk-off shot by
Allison Kerce, to power softball past Dartmouth 13-4 in five innings in game one of a Saturday afternoon doubleheader at Niemand-Robison Field.
Kerce and freshmen teammates
Hanna Crist and
Emily Muniz joined junior
Bridgette Rooney in hitting round-trippers. Kerce was 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two runs scored and four RBI in the win, while
Miranda Lawson was 2-for-2 and walked twice while scoring three times. That made a winner of
Katie Lew, who hurled a complete game five-hitter for her fourth win of the season.
Cornell scored five in the third and six in the fifth, putting an early end to the game when Kerce's slam to left hit the scoreboard to end the contest with two outs. It was the third homer of the inning for the home team, with Crist and Muniz each hitting one ouf the park. It was Muniz's first collegiate home run.
Lew was in control, though the Big Green tied the game at 1-1 in the top fo the third after Cornell got on the board with a Crist RBI single. The Big Red answered right back with five runs in the third, scoring three runs on a bases-clearing double by Kerce immediately prior to a 14-minute rain delay. When the game resumed, Rooney slammed her fifth big fly of the season to extend the advantage to 6-1.
After tacking on a run in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Lawson, Dartmouth got within 7-4 with three in the top of the fifth. Cornell again answered with a home run barrage, with Crist hitting a lead-off shot, Muniz hitting a three-run homer and Kerce putting her signature on the win.
Game Two
Heather Turner had a no-hitter through 3.2 innings and Dartmouth scored 12 runs over the final two innings as the Big Green evened the score with a 16-1 victory. The top three hitters in the Big Green batting order combined to go 9-fo-9 with nine runs scored and seven RBI, with Taylor Ward hitting her fourth home run of the year.
Turner scattered three hits in picking up her first win of 2019. She worked around a pair of Dartmouth errors in the second with just a 2-0 lead. The visitors poured it on the fifth, scoring seven runs on seven hits in the frame.
Bridgette Rooney had the lone highlight of the contest for the Big Red, hitting her second homer of the day in the fourth inning.
The two teams will meet in the rubber game of the series tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Niemand-Robison Field.
