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Princeton Softball to Open 2007 Season This Weekend at North Carolina
February 28, 2007 | Softball
PRINCETON, N.J. – The two-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton softball team will open its season at the University of North Carolina for the second consecutive year this Friday through Sunday.
Princeton is in Group B of the eight-team tournament along with Liberty, Marshall and Rhode Island. The Tigers will face all three of those teams between Friday and Saturday, with the Liberty contest starting things off Friday at 10 a.m., followed by Rhode Island at 12:15 p.m. and Marshall at 10 a.m. Saturday.
From there, Princeton will play at least two more games with opponents determined based on how pool play shakes out. All eight teams will enter a bracket depending on their records with the first bracket game against a team from the other pool. Each team will then have another game, with the two teams still standing in the winner's bracket getting to play a third bracket game.
The Tigers have met everyone in Pool B at least once, with a win over Liberty coming in 1985 and a win over Marshall in 1999 as the only meetings with those schools.
Princeton is 5-0 all-time against Rhode Island with four of those meetings coming between 1988 and 1994. The Rams and Tigers met in 2005 in San Jose, Calif., with Princeton pounding out 14 hits in an 8-1 win. Current senior Calli Jo Varner earned the win with a three-hitter, striking out eight. Katie Halcomb, now also a senior, threw for Rhode Island that day as Princeton piled up five first-inning runs.
The Group A teams are Appalachian State, Fairfield, Rutgers and North Carolina. Princeton played the latter three of those teams last season in a total of five games and won all five. The Tigers have never faced Appalachian State.
Game Notes
Steel-y at the plate: Senior outfielder Stephanie Steel was the second-toughest player in Division I to strike out last season as she fanned only five times in 154 at-bats. She went her last 15-plus games – a span of 52 at-bats – without a strikeout. Steel also carries a 15-game hitting streak into the 2007 season while the Princeton record, belonging to Christina Stuppi, was set at 27 in 1988.
Schaus' house: Junior pitcher Kristen Schaus was a first-team All-Ivy player each of her first two years, earning Ivy Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 and missing Ivy Pitcher of the Year honors both years only because her teammate, Erin Snyder, snagged the other first-team All-Ivy pitching spot both times.
Barron of the diamond: Princeton head coach Maureen Barron, in her seventh season, has led the Tigers to four NCAA tournaments, all in the last five years. She has been a part of all seven Princeton appearances in the NCAAs, with the first three (1994-96) coming during her pitching career. She holds Princeton season and career records for pitching starts, complete games, innings, shutouts and wins. She lost her career strikeouts record only last season when Erin Snyder, the current record holder with 819, passed Barron's 596 in the pre-conference schedule.
Juggling the rotation: With the graduation of Erin Snyder, Princeton will have to re-figure its pitching rotation from the 1-2 punch of Snyder and Schaus last year. Senior Calli Jo Varner brings her experience for a fourth season, and the Tigers expect good things from rookie Jamie Lettire, a lauded righthander from San Jose, Calif.
New infield: Continuing the theme of revamping the Princeton starting lineup, the Tigers will be without three of their four infielders from a year ago. Only second-team all-league second baseman Jackie Araneo, just a sophomore, remains. Kathryn Welch, a first-team All-Ivy outfielder a year ago, will move into the infield and returners Beth Dalmut and Lauren Bierman, plus newcomers Jamie Lettire and Collette Abbott, figure to see time around the basepaths as well.
…and outfield: Senior tri-captain Stephanie Steel will anchor the outfield in center, while Beth Dalmut, Kelsey Quist, Brianna Moreno, Betsy Allaway, Ellen Scott and Erin Miller will also vie for time along the fence.
Behind the plate: Capable sophomore Samantha O'Hara will return along with fellow soph Larkin Brogan to split time at catcher. The duo combined for only one error in 478 chances a year ago for a fielding percentage of .998.
A year ago: Princeton opened its season at UNC's tournament last year, leaving with a 2-3 record. The Tigers beat North Carolina 2-1 in nine innings and closed with a 4-2 win over North Dakota State, but South Carolina, Canisius and Memphis all bested Princeton by just one run each.
On Liberty: The Flames from the Big South Conference will enter the weekend with a 4-3 record, all in games against Appalachian State, Gardner-Webb, College of Charleston and Kennesaw State. Two players that have started all seven games, Seniors Dawn Jeffs and Jessica Moore, have posted especially impressive offensive numbers with Jeffs hitting .520 and Moore .417. Senior righthander Sarah Swor and sophomore righty Sarah Ellis have labored a combined 38 of Liberty's 46 innings and both have ERAs under 2.00 with all four of the Flames' wins.
On Rhode Island: The Rams are in the same boat as the Tigers with this weekend's tournament as the season-opener. URI was 20-27 overall and 8-12 in Atlantic-10 play in 2006, but retains all three pitchers in Katie Halcomb (3.37 ERA, 12-13), Jill Anderson (5.35, 5-9) and Odalys Torres (5.82, 3-5). However, the Rams lost top hitter Courtney Wall (.312), their only batter above .300.
On Marshall: The Thundering Herd have been battling for three weekends already and will enter the weekend with a 7-7 record. Offense has not been a problem for Marshall with six players hitting above .300 and two players – sophomore Joscelyn Bitner and junior Rachel Folden, hitting .560 and .500, respectively, while starting all 14 games. Pitching, however, has been a struggle early on. Abigail Harter and Amanda Luers, who have thrown 71.2 of Marshall's 91.2 innings, both have ERAs higher than 4.00 with the team ERA standing at 5.42.
On Appalachian State: The Mountaineers are 2-6 with a doubleheader against Gardner-Webb on the docket for Feb. 28. Appalachian State hasn't left its home state of North Carolina for its games and won't until after the weekend, when it heads over the Smoky Mountains to face national No. 1 Tennessee in Knoxville. Senior Diana Cook is the team's only hitter above .300 with three hits in nine at-bats. The team's top pitcher is Yancy Moose, a sophomore with a 1.87 ERA in 15 innings despite toting an 0-3 record.
On Fairfield: The Stags also have yet to play a game, but have been tabbed to finish second in the MAAC in the conference's preseason poll. The team finished 32-27-1 last year and 8-8 in the MAAC and retain top hitter Erin Frank, a junior with a .394 average last year. Top pitcher Cagney Ringnalda is back for her senior season after authoring a 15-7 record and 2.32 ERA a year ago.
On North Carolina: The host Tar Heels are 8-8 on the young season and the stats point to strong offense in the 16 games so far. Five players are above .300 with top starter Breanna Brown, a sophomore outfielder, at .378. Lisa Norris and Amber Johnson have all but 2.2 of UNC”s 108.1 innings on a team with an ERA of 3.04. North Carolina has also been battling for three weekends and has logged quite a few miles already. Following a split of a home tournament in which it lost to No. 1 Tennessee and star pitcher Monica Abbott only 2-1 in eight innings despite being no-hit, UNC went to Arizona and Georgia for five games apiece. UNC has East Carolina for a Wednesday doubleheader this week.
On Rutgers: Princeton's familiar Route 1 rivals have played at Texas A&M before going to a tournament at another North Carolina school, Elon, last weekend. The Scarlet Knights dropped their first eight games before rebounding with wins in their last two over Campbell and Georgetown. Pitching has hurt Rutgers so far as the staff carries an ERA of 6.32, but the offense boasts two hitters with especially impressive averages. Kim Hodges has gone 8 of 20 (.400) to start the year, and Sarah Kalka is hitting .360 thus far.
New format: Tiger followers will notice a change in the Ivy League schedule this season with softball joining baseball in the two-division format. Princeton's division, called “Ivy South,” includes Columbia, Cornell and Penn, all of which the Tigers will face four times. Penn will come to Princeton while Columbia will host the Tigers. Princeton will play a home-and-home doubleheader with Cornell to end the regular season, and the top team from each division will meet in a best-of-three weekend May 5-6. The Tigers will face Yale and Brown away and Harvard and Dartmouth home in traditional doubleheaders.
Princeton is in Group B of the eight-team tournament along with Liberty, Marshall and Rhode Island. The Tigers will face all three of those teams between Friday and Saturday, with the Liberty contest starting things off Friday at 10 a.m., followed by Rhode Island at 12:15 p.m. and Marshall at 10 a.m. Saturday.
From there, Princeton will play at least two more games with opponents determined based on how pool play shakes out. All eight teams will enter a bracket depending on their records with the first bracket game against a team from the other pool. Each team will then have another game, with the two teams still standing in the winner's bracket getting to play a third bracket game.
The Tigers have met everyone in Pool B at least once, with a win over Liberty coming in 1985 and a win over Marshall in 1999 as the only meetings with those schools.
Princeton is 5-0 all-time against Rhode Island with four of those meetings coming between 1988 and 1994. The Rams and Tigers met in 2005 in San Jose, Calif., with Princeton pounding out 14 hits in an 8-1 win. Current senior Calli Jo Varner earned the win with a three-hitter, striking out eight. Katie Halcomb, now also a senior, threw for Rhode Island that day as Princeton piled up five first-inning runs.
The Group A teams are Appalachian State, Fairfield, Rutgers and North Carolina. Princeton played the latter three of those teams last season in a total of five games and won all five. The Tigers have never faced Appalachian State.
Game Notes
Steel-y at the plate: Senior outfielder Stephanie Steel was the second-toughest player in Division I to strike out last season as she fanned only five times in 154 at-bats. She went her last 15-plus games – a span of 52 at-bats – without a strikeout. Steel also carries a 15-game hitting streak into the 2007 season while the Princeton record, belonging to Christina Stuppi, was set at 27 in 1988.
Schaus' house: Junior pitcher Kristen Schaus was a first-team All-Ivy player each of her first two years, earning Ivy Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 and missing Ivy Pitcher of the Year honors both years only because her teammate, Erin Snyder, snagged the other first-team All-Ivy pitching spot both times.
Barron of the diamond: Princeton head coach Maureen Barron, in her seventh season, has led the Tigers to four NCAA tournaments, all in the last five years. She has been a part of all seven Princeton appearances in the NCAAs, with the first three (1994-96) coming during her pitching career. She holds Princeton season and career records for pitching starts, complete games, innings, shutouts and wins. She lost her career strikeouts record only last season when Erin Snyder, the current record holder with 819, passed Barron's 596 in the pre-conference schedule.
Juggling the rotation: With the graduation of Erin Snyder, Princeton will have to re-figure its pitching rotation from the 1-2 punch of Snyder and Schaus last year. Senior Calli Jo Varner brings her experience for a fourth season, and the Tigers expect good things from rookie Jamie Lettire, a lauded righthander from San Jose, Calif.
New infield: Continuing the theme of revamping the Princeton starting lineup, the Tigers will be without three of their four infielders from a year ago. Only second-team all-league second baseman Jackie Araneo, just a sophomore, remains. Kathryn Welch, a first-team All-Ivy outfielder a year ago, will move into the infield and returners Beth Dalmut and Lauren Bierman, plus newcomers Jamie Lettire and Collette Abbott, figure to see time around the basepaths as well.
…and outfield: Senior tri-captain Stephanie Steel will anchor the outfield in center, while Beth Dalmut, Kelsey Quist, Brianna Moreno, Betsy Allaway, Ellen Scott and Erin Miller will also vie for time along the fence.
Behind the plate: Capable sophomore Samantha O'Hara will return along with fellow soph Larkin Brogan to split time at catcher. The duo combined for only one error in 478 chances a year ago for a fielding percentage of .998.
A year ago: Princeton opened its season at UNC's tournament last year, leaving with a 2-3 record. The Tigers beat North Carolina 2-1 in nine innings and closed with a 4-2 win over North Dakota State, but South Carolina, Canisius and Memphis all bested Princeton by just one run each.
On Liberty: The Flames from the Big South Conference will enter the weekend with a 4-3 record, all in games against Appalachian State, Gardner-Webb, College of Charleston and Kennesaw State. Two players that have started all seven games, Seniors Dawn Jeffs and Jessica Moore, have posted especially impressive offensive numbers with Jeffs hitting .520 and Moore .417. Senior righthander Sarah Swor and sophomore righty Sarah Ellis have labored a combined 38 of Liberty's 46 innings and both have ERAs under 2.00 with all four of the Flames' wins.
On Rhode Island: The Rams are in the same boat as the Tigers with this weekend's tournament as the season-opener. URI was 20-27 overall and 8-12 in Atlantic-10 play in 2006, but retains all three pitchers in Katie Halcomb (3.37 ERA, 12-13), Jill Anderson (5.35, 5-9) and Odalys Torres (5.82, 3-5). However, the Rams lost top hitter Courtney Wall (.312), their only batter above .300.
On Marshall: The Thundering Herd have been battling for three weekends already and will enter the weekend with a 7-7 record. Offense has not been a problem for Marshall with six players hitting above .300 and two players – sophomore Joscelyn Bitner and junior Rachel Folden, hitting .560 and .500, respectively, while starting all 14 games. Pitching, however, has been a struggle early on. Abigail Harter and Amanda Luers, who have thrown 71.2 of Marshall's 91.2 innings, both have ERAs higher than 4.00 with the team ERA standing at 5.42.
On Appalachian State: The Mountaineers are 2-6 with a doubleheader against Gardner-Webb on the docket for Feb. 28. Appalachian State hasn't left its home state of North Carolina for its games and won't until after the weekend, when it heads over the Smoky Mountains to face national No. 1 Tennessee in Knoxville. Senior Diana Cook is the team's only hitter above .300 with three hits in nine at-bats. The team's top pitcher is Yancy Moose, a sophomore with a 1.87 ERA in 15 innings despite toting an 0-3 record.
On Fairfield: The Stags also have yet to play a game, but have been tabbed to finish second in the MAAC in the conference's preseason poll. The team finished 32-27-1 last year and 8-8 in the MAAC and retain top hitter Erin Frank, a junior with a .394 average last year. Top pitcher Cagney Ringnalda is back for her senior season after authoring a 15-7 record and 2.32 ERA a year ago.
On North Carolina: The host Tar Heels are 8-8 on the young season and the stats point to strong offense in the 16 games so far. Five players are above .300 with top starter Breanna Brown, a sophomore outfielder, at .378. Lisa Norris and Amber Johnson have all but 2.2 of UNC”s 108.1 innings on a team with an ERA of 3.04. North Carolina has also been battling for three weekends and has logged quite a few miles already. Following a split of a home tournament in which it lost to No. 1 Tennessee and star pitcher Monica Abbott only 2-1 in eight innings despite being no-hit, UNC went to Arizona and Georgia for five games apiece. UNC has East Carolina for a Wednesday doubleheader this week.
On Rutgers: Princeton's familiar Route 1 rivals have played at Texas A&M before going to a tournament at another North Carolina school, Elon, last weekend. The Scarlet Knights dropped their first eight games before rebounding with wins in their last two over Campbell and Georgetown. Pitching has hurt Rutgers so far as the staff carries an ERA of 6.32, but the offense boasts two hitters with especially impressive averages. Kim Hodges has gone 8 of 20 (.400) to start the year, and Sarah Kalka is hitting .360 thus far.
New format: Tiger followers will notice a change in the Ivy League schedule this season with softball joining baseball in the two-division format. Princeton's division, called “Ivy South,” includes Columbia, Cornell and Penn, all of which the Tigers will face four times. Penn will come to Princeton while Columbia will host the Tigers. Princeton will play a home-and-home doubleheader with Cornell to end the regular season, and the top team from each division will meet in a best-of-three weekend May 5-6. The Tigers will face Yale and Brown away and Harvard and Dartmouth home in traditional doubleheaders.
Monday, May 11
Saturday, May 09
Friday, May 08
Thursday, May 07