Princeton University Athletics
Softball Travels to Towson for Midweek Twinbill
April 11, 2006 | Softball
April 11, 2006
PRINCETON, N.J. - Winners of 11 of their last 12 games, the Princeton softball team (20-9) heads to Towson Wednesday for a midweek twinbill ahead of an important Ivy League weekend. Everything seems to be going right for the Tigers, who have raised their team batting average 55 points and lowered the team ERA from 1.92 to 1.58 over the stretch.
Pretty impressive: Princeton has posted some gawdy numbers in its six Ivy games so far. The team is hitting .399 with five players, all of whom have started every league game, over .400. Three of those are freshmen, including Kathryn Welch (.500), Samantha O'Hara (.474) and Jackie Araneo (.429). The team has clubbed eight home runs already in league play, coming off the bats of seven hitters. Princeton has outscored its league opponents 40-3.
Meanwhile...: Princeton's hitting has been stellar as the team nears the halfway point of the league season, but the pitching duo has been quite impressive as well. While the offense has battered the opposing staffs for a 6.81 ERA, Erin Snyder and Kristen Schaus have a combined 0.52 ERA and .126 OBA as the only arms the Tigers have used in the Ivy season. Snyder has not allowed a run in 20.2 innings against Ivy foes, totaling 47 strikeouts with no walks. The duo has combined to fan 76 batters while Princeton's hitters have struck out only 19 times.
DE-fense!: The Tigers have committed only one error in 140 chances in the six league games, a .993 fielding percentage. For the season, Princeton carries a .980 fielding average. Perfect: Sunday against Yale, Snyder tossed the fourth perfect game of her career. She set down all 15 batters she faced, striking out 11 of them in Princeton's 16-0, five-inning romp. All four of Snyder's no-hitters have been perfect games. The first came April 3, 2004 at Penn, when all 24 batters Snyder faced went back to the dugout in a 1-0, eight-inning Princeton win. She added two more last year, beating Fairfield 8-0 in five on March 29 and blanking Dartmouth 5-0 in seven on April 17.
On Towson: It'll be Tigers versus Tigers as the Towson variety enters the week with a 16-20 record before playing Mount St. Mary's in a single game Tuesday. The team is batting .251 and the pitching staff carries a 2.62 ERA. Christine Navarro is Towson's top hitter at .301, knocking four of the club's 10 home runs. Two pitchers have shouldered 204 1/3 of the team's 238 innings, with Jillian Kiley at 7-9 (2.32 ERA) and Jessica Fisher at 8-10 (2.47 ERA).
Historically speaking: Towson leads the series 4-3 and is 1-1 on its home turf against Princeton. After a single game in 1991, the teams have played doubleheaders in three of the last four seasons. Princeton split in 2002 at home and 2004 on the road before getting swept at 1895 Field last season. In the 2004 doubleheader, Towson cashed in its tiebreaker runner in the ninth inning for a 2-1 opening-game win. Snyder threw just two innings, walking two and fanning four with a hit. Princeton won the nightcap 1-0 with Calli Jo Varner tossing a complete-game three-hitter, fanning 10 with a walk. Last season, the now-graduated Melissa Finley took the 5-2 loss in the opener before Schaus lost 4-3 in game two.
Looking ahead: Princeton hosts Columbia and Cornell next weekend. A very successful weekend could put Princeton in position to clinch an NCAA berth the following Saturday at Harvard, but if the Tigers stumble, it would be a crowded league race heading into the second half of the month. Both doubleheaders start at Class of 1895 Field at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.