NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The long ball helped the Yale softball team to an important Ivy League victory.
Sam Goodcase hit the first pitch she saw in the bottom of the eighth inning over the left-field fence to lift the Bulldogs to a thrilling 4-3 victory over Brown in the first game of a doubleheader at 5K Corral Field at DeWitt Family Stadium.
Brown rallied to win the second game 4-2 to earn a split of the two games.
Goodcase was 2-for-2 with two RBI in the opener for Yale.
Her double in the first inning drove home
Maddie Latta to start the scoring. Goodcase then scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 after one inning.
Brown got one back in the fourth inning, but the Bulldogs answered in the bottom of the inning when
Willa Ferrer scored on a Latta single to right.
The Bears tied the score at 3-3 with two runs in the sixth, setting up Goodcase's heroics.
Nicole Conway pitched 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory. Latta started in the circle and tossed 5.2 strong innings, which included three strikeouts.
Carolyn Skotz's solo homer in the first inning of the second game gave Yale the early lead.
It looked like that might be enough for
Miranda Papes, who breezed through the first four innings in the circle. The Bears, though, tied the score at 1-1 with a run in the fifth and then scored three times in the sixth. The big blow was a two-run, pinch-hit home run by Dara English.
Goodcase's RBI double in the bottom of the sixth pulled the Bulldogs within two.
Yale threatened in the seventh. Skotz's two-out triple brought the tying run to the plate, but Brown pitcher Alexis Guevara recorded the last out to complete the victory. Guevara struck out 11 and did not issue a walk in the game.
The same two teams play a single game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
