Princeton University Athletics
No Time To Waste
April 13, 2004 | Softball
April 13, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - Just one week ago, the Princeton softball team had utmost and justifiable confidence that it would return to the NCAA Regionals for the third straight year. The Tigers were on an eight-game winning streak, had swept their first league opponent and boasted the toughest non-conference schedule of all the Ivy schools.
Not only did Princeton play eight nationally-ranked teams before facing conference competition, but it defeated half of them, winning against then-No. 13 Pacific, No. 16 Fresno State, No. 18 Arizona State and Cal State Fullerton, which entered the season ranked No. 11. But after one off weekend in the Ivy League, Princeton faces the reality that it might not reach the postseason despite having its most talented roster in years.
The Tigers had their eight-game winning streak snapped at Dartmouth where, after Princeton won the first game 7-0, the Big Green came from another seven runs down to win the second game, 9-8. The loss gave the Tigers no reason to panic yet. After all, Princeton won the Ivies the past two years with at least one league loss. The time to worry came one day later when Princeton was swept by Harvard, which improved to 4-0 and in first place in the league. Elsewhere in the Ivies, Brown shut out Columbia in two games while Yale and Cornell split. The result - three teams moved ahead of Princeton in the Ivy League standings and one is now tied with the Tigers at three games behind Harvard.
At fourth place in the Ivies, Princeton (3-3) hosts Brown (3-1) and Yale (3-1) this weekend, April 17 and 18, in two critical doubleheaders. The Tigers face the Bears at 1 p.m. on Saturday and the Bulldogs at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Brown, which is 10-13 overall, has four players batting over .300, led by Jaimie Wirkowski's .464 batting average. Laura Leonetti bats .426 with 23 runs while Courtney Jenkins has team-highs of five home runs and 20 RBIs. The Bears give up 4.49 earned runs per game and rely on Marissa Berkes for the bulk of the pitching. Berkes is 4-8 with a 4.52 ERA in 67 innings.
Yale plays with a much different style, boasting a team ERA of just 1.56. Peggy Hunt and Beth Pavlicek lead the conference with 0.71 ERAs and combine for a 15-5 record that includes eight shutouts. Chelsea Kayner leads the offense with a .392 batting average ans is the only Bulldog above .300.
Despite the sooner-than-expected crunch time, the Tigers remain confident that their three league losses last weekend will be their last.
Princeton swept both Brown and Yale last year when its three league losses didn't keep it from an Ivy title. The difference from last year is that those three losses came in the final stretch of the Ivy season, not the first weekend.
The 2003 Tigers lost one game to Columbia, their fifth league opponent, and then dropped two to Harvard in the final games of the conference season. Princeton won the Ivy title one game ahead of Cornell, which finished 10-4.