HANOVER, N.H. —
Maria Pagane's go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth lifted the Columbia softball team to victory in game two of a doubleheader against Dartmouth, 5-4, Saturday afternoon at Dartmouth Softball Park.
Columbia (12-22, 8-9 Ivy) earned a split on the day after falling in the opener, 3-0. Dartmouth (13-21, 7-4 Ivy) was led by starting pitcher Brooke Plonka in game one, who struck out eight Lions on her way to tossing a two-hit shutout.
Most of the offense came in game two, led by Pagane's home run as part of a 2-for-4 outing at the plate.
Abby Stuart was 2-for-3 in the back end of the doubleheader with a walk and an RBI.
Cami Neal went 2-for-4 and drove in a run, while
Megan Ryono reached base three times and scored twice.
"We continue to get better through the season and that's what you want to see," Columbia head coach
Jennifer Teague said. "We've had a really good week of practice and these past three weeks we've really been talking about battling. To see all of the work we've been putting in at practice come through in a back-and-forth game like that was really something."
The bats came to life early in game two as Pagane,
Abby Stuart and
Bubba Gleaves all reached to load the bases with one out for
Cami Neal. The first year ripped a 2-1 pitch to the opposite field, scoring Pagane to put Columbia on top.
Dartmouth answered with two runs in the bottom half against starting pitcher
Raquel Reyes. The sophomore, who was coming off a no-hitter in her last outing, walked two in the inning to bring Leila Hennessy to bat with two down. Hennessy blooped an 0-2 pitch just over the head of Neal at second, scoring Katona from second to tie the game. Mary Beth Calahan went first-to-third on the hit, but then came home to score when Rifenberick walked the ball back to the circle and left home plate unoccupied.
Columbia quickly retook the lead in its next turn at bat.
Maddie Souza got it going by cranking the first pitch she saw off the wall in left for a leadoff double.
Megan Ryono singled and moved to second to put two in scoring position for
Jaden Hill, who tied the score on a sac fly to right, advancing Ryono to third and bringing Souza home. Two batters later, Stuart drove in Ryono with a two-out RBI single to left to make it a 3-2 ball game.
Reyes was sharp through the second and worked through a two-on, nobody-out situation in the third to maintain the lead. However, the Big Green would tie things up on a well-executed double steal in the fourth. Katona then doubled to right as the home side reclaimed the one-run advantage.
Pagane was the hero in the sixth. After Ryono drew a one-out walk and Hill popped up, the graduate student from Orlando stepped up with two down and Ryono on first. Plonka, the game one starter, was pitching in relief for Dartmouth and left a pitch up for Pagane, who drove it deep and gone to left for her third home run of the season.
"It was awesome to see Maria get that homer," Teague said. "We all know she has that in her and it was nice to see her provide that spark. She had been making a lot of adjustments at the plate, so for her to touch one out was awesome."
Reyes retired the first two Big Green batters in the sixth before Coach Teague went to the bullpen for
Kaia McCaul. Reyes went on to get the win to improve to 4-4 on the year. McCaul was perfect in relief, needing just 17 pitches to retire the final four batters. Her three-pitch strikeout of Calahan earned the junior her second save of the season and ended Dartmouth's eight-game winning streak.
"We felt like Kaia was fresh and ready to come in," Teague added. "She's really thriving in that role. She's done a really good job of performing and turned in another good one for us today."
The rubber game of the series will be contested on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Fans can
watch the game live on ESPN+.
For the latest on the Columbia softball program, follow @CULionsSoftball on
Twitter and
Instagram, on Facebook at
Facebook.com/CULionsSoftball. You can view all the latest with the Lions on the web at
GoColumbiaLions.com/Softball.
