Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Villanova, Penn Ahead for Ivy-Undefeated Softball
April 16, 2008 | Softball
PRINCETON -- Having passed the halfway point of the Ivy
season last weekend with its undefeated record still intact, the
Princeton softball team will look to keep its impressive start going
this weekend.
But before the Tigers host rival Penn for 12:30
doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, Princeton will tangle with another
Philadelphia Big 5 team Thursday when it travels to Villanova for a 3
p.m. twinbill.
Princeton has faced Villanova in a doubleheader
annually since 1998, though the teams first met in 1984. Princeton
holds an 18-14-1 advantage in the series. Last season, however,
Villanova swept Princeton at 1895 Field, answering Princeton's 2006
sweep in Villanova.
Princeton enjoys a much more dominant
historical record over Penn, winning 47 of the 51 meetings since the
series began in 1982. Last season, Princeton split the four-game series
at '95 Field, ending a 13-game winning streak for the Orange and Black
over the Quakers.
With continued success, the Tigers have a chance to set program records over the Villanova-Penn stretch.
Princeton's
12-0 Ivy League start is its second all-time and first since 1995, when
the team had only 12 games on its Ivy schedule. A win in the Penn
opener would set a record for Princeton's most wins without a loss in
Ivy play. It would also tie the program record for league wins in a
season, set in 2002 when the Tigers went 13-1.
Taking two and
three games from Penn would tie and set an Ivy League record for league
wins, set by both Harvard and Penn last season. Those two teams went
14-6 in 2007, the first year of the expanded 20-game league schedule.
| Ivy South | W | L |
| Princeton | 12 | 0 |
| Cornell | 11 | 1 |
| Penn | 5 | 7 |
| Columbia | 3 | 9 |
| | | |
| Ivy North | | |
| Harvard | 9 | 3 |
| Dartmouth | 5 | 7 |
| Yale | 2 | 10 |
| Brown | 1 | 11 |
Tiger Notes...
Busy times: Princeton's
three days off between last Sunday's Columbia games and Thursday's trip
to Villanova will seem like quite a while when looking at the rest of
the month. Princeton will play four doubleheaders in six days between
Villanova, Penn and a trip to Lehigh next Tuesday. The Tigers will then
have two days off before a Friday/Sunday home-and-home series with
Cornell.
Ivy leaders: A new set of Ivy League statistics
from conference games has Princeton at the top of several categories.
Here are the highlights:
? Princeton leads the league in both hitting (.337) and pitching (1.23 ERA).
?
The top three batting averages in the league belong to Princeton
players. Jamie Lettire has the inside track to the league batting title
at .512, while Kelsey Quist is at .485 and Kathryn Welch is at .439.
?
Lettire also has the league's only 0.00 ERA among those who have thrown
an average of one inning per team game. Harvard's Margaux Black has the
only other sub-1.00 ERA at 0.45. Kristen Schaus ranks third on that
list with a 1.22 league ERA.
? Lettire is the Ivy League's hits
leader with 21 and ranks second in runs scored with 14. Welch has
scored the most runs (14) and is third in hits (18).
? Two of the top three RBI leaders are Tigers with Quist notching a league-best 18 and Welch third with 13.
?
All three leaguers with more than three home runs are Tigers. Quist and
Welch are tied with seven in league play and Lettire has five.
? The top three leaguers in total bases are also Princeton hitters, with Welch at 43, Quist at 40 and Lettire at 39.
Strikeout chase: Kristen
Schaus struck out 13 Lions over the weekend to bring her career total
to 789 strikeouts. She needs 30 more to tie former teammate Erin Snyder
'06 (819).
Collegiate firsts: Brittney Scott and Kristin
Arguedas each hit their first collegiate home run at Columbia over the
weekend. Fellow freshman Megan Weidrick hit home runs number three and
four against the Lions. All three hitting freshmen have now hit home
runs in a Tiger uniform.
Streakers: Kathryn Welch and
Beth Dalmut have some particularly significant hitting streaks heading
into the Villanova doubleheader. Welch has hit in seven straight and
Dalmut has a six-game streak. Over the last seven games, Welch has hit
.542 (13 of 24).
What a weekend: Princeton put on quite a
show at the plate on the northern tip of Manhattan last weekend. The
Tigers clubbed 11 home runs, had 48 hits and scored 37 runs over the
four games. Five starters hit better than .400, led by Kathryn Welch
and Jamie Lettire, who each hit .563. Princeton's pitchers had an 0.58
ERA while allowing only two earned runs.