The Massachusetts softball team will break in the Softball Complex for the first time this season as Dartmouth comes to town for the Minutewomen’s official home opener on Wednesday.
Doubleheader action is in store, with the first game beginning at 2 p.m. and the second one scheduled two hours later.
“We’ve had one practice and it was fantastic to finally be outside on a field where you belong, taking groundballs and fly balls and not being in the gym,” said UMass softball coach Elaine Sortino. “We really loved it.”
UMass (9-14, 3-3 Atlantic 10) is coming off two straight doubleheaders, splitting each of those against Temple and Saint Joseph’s.
Despite recently swapping wins and losses, the Minutewomen have gone a respectable 7-4 in their last 11 games. This came after eight straight losses that stretched through three different states and both coasts of the country.
The early travels have left the players glad to finally be playing on their own field and off the road for the first time in 23 games.
“It will be a good test for us,” said Sortino. “The thing you take into factor is that when it’s your home opener, everybody gets the jitters again. You get a little tight. I think once we get through the first inning it will be a good thing to just be playing.”
While the younger UMass players continue to grow, the Minutewomen will take on an equally developing team in the Big Green.
Dartmouth (5-8, 0-0 Ivy League) has just two seniors and four juniors to go along with nine underclassmen.
The team’s primary two starters are junior Hillary Barker and sophomore Evan Gray. Barker is 3-2 in 39 innings pitched with a 3.41 earned run average. Gray is 2-4 in 35.2 innings with a 4.32 ERA.
The pair carries a pitching staff that has grown into one of the Ivy League’s best. Dartmouth is fifth in ERA, but leads the league conference with the fewest walks and home runs allowed and is second in fewest hits allowed.
The last time UMass and Dartmouth played was on April 1, 2009 at UMass, when the Minutewomen won 5-0 in six innings. Not having played Dartmouth in a few years, Sortino and her team are not too knowledgeable about Barker and Gray.
One thing UMass can expect to see is solid defense, as the Big Green has committed the second fewest errors in the conference at 19.
However, crossing the plate does not come as easy. Dartmouth is not in the top five teams when it comes to runs scored, runs batted in or hits, despite having the second highest on-base percentage.
Senior Audrey Kolodziej, who comes to Amherst with a .341 batting average, has played in every game for the Big Green and leads the team with 15 hits.
Dartmouth has hit just seven home runs this season, with sophomores Katie Adams and Noelle Ramirez responsible for five of them, collectively.
The Big Green is currently last in the North Division of the Ivy League. Only Columbia, in the South Division, has a lower winning percentage this season.
UMass sits in the eighth spot of the A-10 out of 11 teams, but is separated from first place Fordham by only two losses.
Pete Vasquez can be reached at [email protected].
