Princeton University Athletics
Softball Opens Home Schedule Wednesday with Rutgers
March 27, 2006 | Softball
March 27, 2006
PRINCETON, N.J. - After a trip to California that saw the Princeton softball team (10-8) play 13 games in 10 days, the Tigers are back in the Northeast to begin a feverish schedule full of weekend league contests and midweek non-conference doubleheaders. Princeton has two of those non-Ivy twinbills this week. Wednesday, Rutgers helps open the 2006 season at Class of 1895 field with a 2 p.m. start and Thursday, the Tigers visit Fairfield.
Last Week:During the first weekend of the spring trip, Princeton swept four games at the Capital Classic in Sacramento against Minnesota, Miami University, Southern Utah and Nevada, ending up as one of five schools in the 16-team event to finish 4-0. Three Tigers earned Ivy weekly honors for their performances as sophomore Kristen Schaus was the Ivy Pitcher of the Week, Calli Jo Varner was the Ivy Player of the Week, and Kathryn Welch was the Ivy Rookie of the Week. During Princeton's win over Nevada, senior Erin Snyder broke the school record for career strikeouts, passing head coach Maureen Barron's 596. Snyder now has 630 Ks in her career.
But the pair of midweek doubleheaders in California were not as kind. After splitting with St. Mary's, Princeton was swept by Sacramento State and fell to 5-3 for the week. Following a day off Thursday, the Tigers seemed to get back on track with wins over Illinois and UC Davis on Friday at the Stanford Invitational. But a hard-luck 1-0 loss to No. 5 Stanford in which Snyder allowed only one run on seven hits rolled into a 3-1 loss to Santa Clara later in the day. The Tigers closed the weekend with a come-from-behind win over Illinois in which Snyder hit her first home run of the year to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead. With the wins over Minnesota and Illinois twice, the Tigers won multiple games against Big Ten schools in the same season for the first time in program history. This Week:Rutgers enters with a 6-19 record overall and started Big East play last weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Connecticut and Providence, winning one of four. The Scarlet Knights have one regular starter over .300 at the plate with rookie infielder Brittany Loisel hitting .310. Junior Kristin Madoch is the team's most productive hitter with a team-high 15 RBI, 35 total bases and 10 of her 19 hits going for extra bases. Three arms have shared most of Rutgers' 163 1/3 innings with the staff carrying a 4.16 ERA. Rutgers has faced one Ivy school so far, Brown, falling to the Bears 5-2 in Charleston, S.C.
Fairfield also plays Wednesday, facing another future Princeton opponent in St. John's. The Stags are 12-6 and are strong at the plate, hitting .322 as a team. Six regular starters are over .300, led by junior pitcher/outfielder Cagney Ringnalada's .396. She also leads the team in pitching wins at 6-0 with a 2.21 ERA. As a staff, the Stags carry a 2.24 ERA and use four pitcher with senior righthander Tara Hansen (1-4, 2.69) logging the most innings at 39.0 The team has outscored its opponents 87-51 through its first 18 games. Fairfield has not yet played any common opponents with Princeton, but does share six common foes and play eight straight games against Ivy schools starting with the Tigers.
Swingin' and missin': Princeton's staff has struck out 175 batters in 18 games this year while the Tiger hitters have only fanned 76 times. Snyder has an amazing strikeout-to-walk ratio of 69:3, working out to 23 strikeouts for every free pass. Schaus has logged the most innings at 62 2/3, striking out 92 batters with 18 walks.
Kat the Bat: Welch's Ivy Rookie of the Week honor will be the first of many if she keeps up her current pace. Welch leads Princeton with 22 total bases, 10 RBI and has two of the five Tiger home runs with both coming off Big Ten pitchers against Minnesota and Iowa. Overall, she is hitting .280 on the year and .351 on the spring trip.
Hit and Run: Freshman Brianna Moreno has four of Princeton's six stolen bases and also has the team's longest current hitting streak at four games.
Senior leader: Cristina Cobb-Adams is Princeton's leading hitter at .298, hitting in 12 of Princeton's 18 games. Against Miami Univ., Cobb-Adams was 3 for 4 with three RBI in a five-inning game. Playing at the toughest position to field, the shortstop has made only three errors in 35 chances (.914).
Dalmut's day: On the spring trip against Nevada, sophomore Beth Dalmut was 2 for 2 with a walk and a career-high four RBI.
Coming in bunches: Cobb-Adams and Amanda Erickson lead Princeton with four multi-hit games and are two of the three Tigers with a three-hit game (Welch).
Plenty busy: In her 62 2/3 innings, Schaus has been the most-used Tiger pitcher so far this season. In 11 appearances, Schaus has struck out a double-digit number of batters four times and had nine Ks on three other occasions. During the Sacramento tournament, Schaus threw 14 innings, striking out 24 batters without an earned run.
Ivy time: After the two non-league doubleheaders, Princeton travels to Penn to open league play on Saturday. The other six Ivy schools open league play the following weekend when Yale and Brown travel to Princeton while the New England schools visit the New York schools.