Princeton University Athletics
Callin' Baton Rouge: Princeton Softball Heads to Louisiana for Seventh NCAA Appearance
May 16, 2006 | Softball
PRINCETON, N.J. - With apologies to Garth Brooks and the Oak Ridge Boys, the Princeton softball team is calling Baton Rouge just for business. Making their seventh NCAA appearance, the Tigers hope to laissez les bon temps rouler against their fellow Tigers from Louisiana State Friday at 7 p.m. Central Time. It is the first time since 1994 and the second time ever that the program has competed in the state of Louisiana.
About the regional: The Baton Rouge Regional features LSU (51-12), Princeton (34-17), Louisiana-Lafayette (48-10) and North Carolina State (48-19). In the double-elimination format, the winners of Friday's games between La.-Lafayette and N.C. State (4 p.m. CT) and LSU and Princeton will meet Saturday while the losing teams will meet as well. The team that loses the matchup between the winners faces the survivor from the losers' game for the right to stay in the tournament. Whichever team wins that one must knock out the unblemished team twice to advance to the super-regional round.
Super Regional?: The super-regional is a best-of-three series between two regional winners. The winner from the Baton Rouge Regional faces the winner from the Tucson Regional (Arizona, Ohio State, Auburn, Marist) for the right to play in the Women's College World Series.
Tigers in the NCAAs: Princeton will be making its seventh NCAA tournament appearance this weekend. The Tigers made three straight trips from 1994-96, advancing to the Women's College World Series the last two years. The first visit was also in Louisiana at what was then Southwestern Louisiana University and is now Louisiana-Lafayette, also in the Baton Rouge Regional. Two years later, the Ragin' Cajuns knocked Princeton out of the WCWS in what was Princeton's last final-eight game. The Tigers missed out on the postseason for five seasons before Maureen Barron returned the program to the national stage in her second season in 2002, visiting again in 2003 and 2005. Princeton has won one game in those three NCAA trips under Barron, defeating Lehigh last season in Arizona.
Representing the Northeast: Eight teams from the northeastern part of the country made the NCAA tournament including Penn State, Lehigh, Marist, Long Island, Hofstra, Albany and Massachusetts in addition to the Tigers. Six of those teams are playing at the two regionals in the Northeast at Amherst, Mass., and Hempstead, N.Y. Marist (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.), going to Tucson, Ariz., is the only other team from the area getting on a plane.
Louisiana and the Tigers: Princeton is 0-5 all-time against schools from Louisiana, adding a 1992 loss to Northeast Louisiana (now Louisiana-Monroe) to the four losses against Louisiana-Lafayette. None of those games occurred in Louisiana, but the Tigers went 1-2 in the 1994 NCAA Regional at Southwest Louisiana against Utah (two losses) and McNeese State (win).
Barron against the SEC: Princeton is 1-11 all-time against SEC foes, nine of those losses coming to South Carolina. The Tigers lost one to Georgia and split with Tennessee. In her six seasons, Barron is 1-4 against SEC schools. In 2002, Princeton fell at Georgia in a pre-conference tournament. The next year, after splitting at Tennessee during the pre-conference slate, the Tigers met the Gamecocks in Tucson in the NCAA tournament and lost 8-7. In 2004, the last time Princeton played an SEC school, South Carolina prevailed at the Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Ga.
New foes: Princeton and LSU meet up for the first time Friday. LSU was given the No. 15 overall seed out of the 16 seeded teams and hosts a regional for the first time since 2001 and fourth time overall for the 10th-year program. LSU has been to two Women's College World Series, in 2001 and 2004, compiling a 5-4 record on college softball's biggest stage.
San Diego-ans... San Diegans: Friday's contest could feature a pair of pitchers from the San Diego area as Princeton's Erin Snyder (17-5) and LSU's Emily Turner (25-7) are a possible matchup. Both carry impressive numbers with Turner's 0.69 ERA slightly lower than Snyder's 0.76. Snyder brings a career-high 242 strikeouts into the weekend with only seven walks, a ratio of 34.6:1, likely the best in the nation. Her strikeouts-per-seven total of 12.2 is among the top in Division I. Turner strikes out 3.9 batters per walk and fans 7.9 batters per seven innings.
Anything in common?: Princeton and LSU faced only one common opponent this year as Stanford beat both schools 1-0 a month apart. Snyder took the loss against the Cardinal while LSU's Dani Hofer (15-5, 2.12 ERA) lost the dual shutout with Stanford in the bottom of the seventh.
Comparing the stats: LSU has the numbers advantage over Princeton, though both compiled solid stats during the season. LSU's pitching staff has a 1.20 ERA to Princeton's 1.45. The southern Tigers hit .308 as a team to the Orange and Black's .279. Three LSU players, junior outfielder Leslie Klein (.394), senior designated player/outfielder Lauren Castle (.368) and sophomore second baseman Vanessa Soto (.362) have higher averages than Princeton's top hitter, Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kathryn Welch (.342). Both teams have about the same rate of home runs per game as Princeton has hit 32 in 51 games and LSU has 41 in 63 contests. Klein is LSU's leader with seven blasts while senior Amanda Erickson also has seven for Princeton.
Knows the territory: LSU softball has a couple members of its party who are very familiar with the Garden State. Associate Head Coach James DeFeo is a 1996 Rutgers graduate and sophomore catcher Killian Roessner is a graduate of Wall High School in Manasquan, N.J. who played three years of softball at Lawrenceville Prep just down Route 206 from the Princeton campus.
A look at the Ragin' Cajuns: Louisiana-Lafayette started its season 22-0 and almost upset high-powered Texas before being handed its first loss 6-5. The Ragin' Cajuns and Tigers had just one common opponent as La.-Lafayette crushed Memphis 12-1 a few weeks before Memphis squeaked past Princeton 2-1. Senior outfielder Danyele Gomez is hitting a scorching .443 with 29 of the team's 99 home runs. While the team is hitting a solid .312, the pitching staff carries a 1.80 ERA behind Ashley Kirchberg (24-1, 1.75) and Krystal Lewallen (1.90, 24-8).
History with the Cajuns: Louisiana-Lafayette has taken all four meetings from Princeton. The Cajuns defeated Princeton in its last WCWS game in 1996, 7-0. The two met twice the following year in the Princeton Invitational with the Cajuns dealing the Tigers 1-0 and 5-2 losses. Two years ago, they hooked up again with La.-Lafayette winning 7-0. The graduated Brooke Mitchell, who pitched in the WCWS for the Cajuns, threw six no-hit innings against the Tigers in Fullerton, Calif., while Snyder gave up two first-inning runs before being lifted in the opening frame. Stephanie Steel had one of Princeton's two seventh-inning hits.
A look at the Wolfpack: Princeton and N.C. State have three common opponents this season in Miami (Ohio), Minnesota and Columbia. Princeton went 4-0 against the group while the Wolfpack went 3-1, splitting the two meetings with Miami. N.C. State has no hitter above .300 and is hitting .236 as a team. Junior catcher Miranda Ervin is hitting .298 with 11 home runs. In the circle, the Wolfpack will carry a 1.86 ERA into the weekend, largely on the arms of Ervin's sister Shaina (19-3, 1.53) and Abbie Sims (23-12, 1.78), the pitcher who fell to Princeton last season.
History with the Wolfpack: Princeton has met N.C. State just once, opening the 2005 season in Greenville, N.C. Kristen Schaus four-hit the Wolfpack, fanning 12 with a walk while Sims allowed Princeton only two hits. One of those was particularly costly, however, as Ty Ries '05 hit a fifth-inning home run that became the difference.
All-Ivy: Princeton had eight players honored as either first-team or second-team All-Ivy last week. Snyder became Princeton's seventh Ivy League Pitcher of the Year and second to win the award in back-to-back years. Kathryn Welch was named Princeton's seventh Ivy League Rookie of the Year. Schaus and Calli Jo Varner joined those two on the first team while Jackie Araneo, Beth Dalmut, Amanda Erickson and Stephanie Steel were named second-team all-league.
Princeton in the NCAA rankings: New NCAA rankings were released Tuesday and Princeton's named was sprinkled across several lists. The Tigers are ranked eighth in fielding percentage at .978 and 18th in ERA at 1.45.
Individually, three players received mention. Stephanie Steel is the third-toughest player to strike out with 29.6 at-bats per strikeout. Snyder's 12.2 strikeouts per seven innings is the fourth-most in Division I, and Schaus' 9.9 is 17th. That makes Princeton one of two schools with two players ranked that highly in the category (Arizona). Snyder's 0.76 ERA is also the eighth-lowest in the country.
Streaky hitter: In addition to being among the most difficult hitters in the country to get swinging, Steel carries a notable hitting streak of 13 games into the NCAA tournament.
What next?: Regardless of the outcome of Friday's game, Princeton will be suiting up Saturday to play either at 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. A win gives Princeton a 1 p.m. start against the N.C. State/Louisiana-Lafayette winner while a loss matches Princeton with the loser of that game at 4 p.m. with the right to stay in the tournament on the line.