Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Columbia (Game 1)
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More One-Run Contests at Columbia as Softball Splits
April 18, 2007 | Softball
NEW YORK -- Continuing a trend, the Princeton softball team split a pair of one-run games at Columbia Wednesday afternoon, winning 2-1 in the opener and falling 3-2 in game two.
Seven of the last eight Princeton-Columbia games in Manhattan have been decided by one run, three in extra innings.
Princeton (18-23, 8-4 Ivy) fell two games back of Penn, which swept Cornell in Philadelphia Wednesday. The Tigers are now tied with Cornell in second. Columbia (17-19, 7-9) fell five back with the split.
Game 1: Princeton 2, Columbia 1
Princeton won over Columbia in its final at-bat for the second straight game as Erin Miller had a two-out, go-ahead RBI in the seventh to lead the Tigers to a 2-1 win in the opener.
Kristen Schaus struck out eight and scattered six hits, walking two, to improve to 8-10 overall. Columbia's Aimee Kemp (12-9) once again kept her infield busy, getting 15 ground-ball outs to go with three strikeouts and a pair of walks. She allowed just four hits.
Columbia had runners on second and third with two out after Keli Leong became the Lions' first baserunner with a shallow single to left and Valerie Smith followed it with a double to left-center. But the threat was averted when Schaus got Chantee Dempsey to ground to shortstop, barely coming in behind the throw.
Leadoff home runs in each half of the fifth inning put Princeton ahead and quickly revoked the Tiger lead. Jamie Lettire hit her fourth home run of the year to left field, and Columbia's Lacie Nelson, who won Saturday's opener with a seventh-inning homer, tied it up with a nearly identical blast to Lettire's.
The Lions threatened again in the bottom of the sixth. Two singles put runners on the corners and two out for Nelson, but the Columbia senior wouldn't get a chance for heroics, instead being put on intentionally. Deanna Minuto then pinch hit, but hit a grounder that Kathryn Welch snagged at shortstop and tagged Dempsey going to third for the final out.
Princeton got a runner to third base for only the second time, other than the home run, in the seventh inning to set the opportunity for Miller. Calli Jo Varner punched a one-out single through the left side, and Lettire had nothing to hit in a walk that put Varner in scoring position.
Kelsey Quist, running for Lettire, was erased at second to put runners on the corners for Miller, who dropped a 2-2 single to left to score Varner.
Schaus got out of another jam in the seventh giving up a walk and a single to start the inning. After a strikeout and a sacrifice, the tying and winning runs were in scoring position for Leong, but Welch cleanly fielded a grounder and threw across to Lettire at first base, who picked it for the out to save the win.
Game 2: Columbia 3, Princeton 2
A one-out home run by Columbia cleanup hitter Valerie Smith staked the Lions to a three-run lead in the first inning and Princeton couldn't come back, falling 3-2 in the nightcap.
Princeton had its chances against Columbia rookie starter Deanna Minuto, who had thrown only four innings, all in relief, this season. The Tigers left the bases loaded in the first, but chipped one run off the lead in the third when Kathryn Welch homered to left for her first round-tripper of the year.
Brianna Moreno helped the Tigers cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth. Erin Miller started the inning with a single, and Jackie Araneo reached when Minuto couldn't field her sacrifice bunt. A sacrifice by Samantha O'Hara put both runners in scoring position with a sac, and Moreno put a slow hopper in play to bring Miller home.
That ended the afternoon for Minuto, and first-game pitcher Aimee Kemp retired Welch to end the threat and strand Princeton's fifth runner of the first four innings in scoring position.
Minuto finished with six hits and two walks allowed, earning one of the two runs while striking out one in 3 2/3 innings.
Jamie Lettire (7-5) gave up five hits without a walk in six innings. After the first inning, only one Columbia runner reached second base, but the Tigers couldn't close the gap in her favor.
Kemp (13-9) earned the relief win, retiring eight of the 10 batters she faced and giving up just one hit with two strikeouts.