Hanover
The Big Green, three-time defending division champion, entered the afternoon needing to sweep to keep its crown. The Crimson, winners of North titles during the three consecutive years before Dartmouth’s streak, needed only a split to reclaim its former glory. The hosts mounted a marvelous comeback to win the first game, 7-6, before enduring a late collapse to lose the second contest, 8-5.
“We had a lot of fight, but sometimes, at the end, you just get beat,” said second-year coach Shannon Doepking, whose team began the season 12-0 in Ivy play before losing five of its last eight games, all against Ancient Eight foes. “There’s nothing more we could have asked from these kids today.”
The afternoon’s most unforgettable moment occurred during the top of the first game’s sixth inning. Harvard led, 4-3, with two outs and runners on first and second base. A Catherine Callaway pop fly midway down the left field line drew Dartmouth shortstop Katie McEachern and left fielder Chloe Madill, each sprinting, but neither in obvious position to make a catch.
Because of that uncertainty, McEachern said, neither player called for the ball as they approached each other on perpendicular paths. Madill dove forward while McEachern continued in full stride, her right knee driving into the left side of Madill’s face. The collision created a sharp crack audible behind the plate and while McEachern tumbled into foul territory, Madill slid to a stop on her stomach, her face on the artificial turf and her body unmoving.
“I was listening for her and she was listening for me but no one talked,” McEachern said. “It was just a freak accident.”
Callaway raced to third with Madill apparently unconscious and the ball underneath her before play was called with the score 6-3. A delay of roughly 25 minutes ensued while an ambulance was called and drove onto the field. Only when its medical personnel disembarked and crouched over the player for a few minutes did she finally move, drawing expressions of relief from many in the stands.
During the wait, Dartmouth’s players knelt in a circle near home plate, the sounds of sobbing and prayer rising out of the huddle. Harvard’s players knelt in front of their dugout. An eerie silence hung over the bleachers.
“I really think it brought our team closer together than we’ve ever been and it was amazing to watch us pull out the fight we needed,” McEachern said, her eyes welling with tears and her voice shaky.
The ambulance departed, but not before Madill, strapped to a backboard, waved a double peace sign with her upraised hands. Dartmouth quickly recorded the third out, and who hobbled to the plate in obvious pain? None other than McEachern, who blasted the first pitch over the right-center field wall and made a very slow circuit of the bases.
Two singles, a hit batter and a double followed, with a sacrifice fly tacked on for good measure. Suddenly, Dartmouth had four runs, the Crimson went down in order during the top of the seventh inning and the division title was still up for grabs.
“There aren’t many kids who would respond like that,” Doepking said. “We just talked about how Chloe was going to be OK and that she wouldn’t want us to be feeling sorry for her. We had to focus on the task at hand.”
The second game began well for the Big Green, with two singles and a double producing a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Harvard went up, 3-2, during the fourth and 4-2 in the fifth before Dartmouth pulled ahead at 5-4 after five innings. The hosts parlayed an error, a walk and two doubles into their rally.
Big Green starting pitcher Breanna Ethridge departed after 4 innings and allowed six hits and four runs, all earned. Her reliever was senior Morgan McCalmon, who’d allowed 10 hits while striking out eight batters and walking five during the first game. The sixth inning was scoreless and the seventh an utter disaster for the right-hander and her team.
Harvard’s Callaway began the frame with a line-drive hit off the third baseman’s glove. Another single, two doubles and two more singles followed, two of the singles coming on balls past reserve shortstop Taylor Ward that a fully mobile McEachern might well have turned into outs. No one warmed up in the home bullpen. The season was, for all intents and purposes, over before Dartmouth went down in order during its final at-bat.
“Morgan ran out of gas and hit a wall,” Doepking said of a player who threw a combined 17 innings during her team’s final four games, all against Harvard. “She’s a senior with a lot of injuries and if we’re going to go down, it’s with her on the mound.”
McCalmon allowed six hits and four earned runs while striking out none and walking one during 2 innings during the second game. In her lone season as Dartmouth’s ace, she made 21 starts, threw 134 innings and finished 16-7 with a 2.71 earned-run average. Ethridge was 10-4 with a 2.43 ERA in 83 innings. She allowed a combined 10 hits and eight earned runs during a combined seven innings in her last two starts, both against Harvard.
Dartmouth’s Lourlin Lara was a combined 4-of-8 with two RBIs Tuesday. Kelsey Miller, who had four hits during the final 28 at-bats of her college career, was 1-of-5 and Morgan Martinelli, Maddie Damore and Kassidy Williams were a combined 0-of-11 during the second game. Damore hit a two-run home run early in the first game.
“I could not be more proud of this team, especially in that first game,” McCalmon said. “We weren’t playing for ourselves; we were playing for Chloe, and it’s always easier when you’re playing for someone else.
“I gave it everything I had but I ran out of gas and Harvard jumped on me. Props to them, but I gave it everything I had until the end.”
Notes: The games were originally scheduled to be played Sunday, but were postponed by rain. … Dartmouth finished 27-15 overall and 15-5 in Ivy play. Harvard is 28-15, 16-4 and will host South Division winner Princeton in the league championship series this weekend. … McEachern drew three walks during the second game, being pulled for a pinch runner each time. She also smacked a solo home run in the third inning of the second game and led the Ivies with 12 round-trippers this season. … Martinelli, a second baseman, started all 37 games in which she played as a freshman and was second in batting average at .377. However, she had 10 hits in her final 39 at-bats. … Kristen Rumley, a 2015 Dartmouth graduate and her team’s top pitcher each of her four seasons, teamed with McCalmon to form a potent 1-2 punch in the circle the past three years. Rumley spent this season as a Big Green assistant coach. … Hockey players Ailish Forfar, Laura Stacey and Lindsey Allen were back and cheering from the front railing Tuesday. Forfar brandished a sign declaring the stadium a “Mumps-Free Zone,” in reference to a recent outbreak of that illness on the Harvard campus.