ITHACA,
N.Y. ? Two games later, there is still a tie atop the Ivy South softball
division. Princeton took an early lead over Cornell in game one and held it for
a 9-5 win, but the Big Red came back to square it with a 5-2 victory in the
nightcap.
Princeton and Cornell will
get together Sunday for a 12:30 p.m. doubleheader at Class of 1895 Field. If
the teams split, a single game Monday at 12:30 at '95 Field will decide the Ivy
South champion.
Game 1: Princeton 9,
Cornell 5
Kelsey Quist had a home run in the first inning and the last
inning to help hand Cornell pitcher Jenn Meunier just her second loss on the
season against 19 wins and lift the Tigers to a 9-5 win in the opener.
The home runs were the 12th and 13th
of the season for the sophomore Quist, who is one away from tying Melissa
Finley '05 for the Princeton single-season record.
Quist's first blast, a one-out fly ball to left field,
staked the Tigers to a 3-0 lead after one inning.
Princeton would need all of
those runs and more against a Cornell team that was hitting a Division I
second-best .345 entering the week. The Big Red started the second inning with
two hits and eventually pushed one across to cut the deficit to 3-1.
The Tigers added a run each in the fourth through sixth
innings. Brittney Scott had an RBI single to account for the first of those
before a fifth-inning squeeze by Jamie Lettire and a Beth Dalmut RBI-single in
the sixth.
Princeton's lead, however,
was only 6-4 at that point. Cornell touched Princeton
starter Kristen Schaus for three runs on three hits and a walk in the fourth,
but the Tigers never relinquished the lead.
Quist hit her second home run to lead off the seventh, a
shot to centerfield that easily carried the 220-foot fence, and Dalmut later came
up with a two-run single. Cornell managed to score one run in its last at-bat.
Schaus (8-15) finished with 10 hits and two walks allowed to
go with seven strikeouts.
Game 2: Cornell 5, Princeton
2
The Tigers didn't get much from Cornell rookie pitcher Ali
Tomlinson, whose only costly blemish was a two-run home run to counterpart
Lettire in a 5-2 Big Red win.
Lettire left with a tie game after four innings, having
allowed four hits and two runs, only one of which was earned. After a
first-inning run by Cornell and Lettire's centerfield blast in the fourth, the
Big Red tied it with a two-out double in its half of the inning.
Michelle Tolfa (7-4) relieved Lettire for the fifth and gave
up three hits in her only inning, leading to two Cornell runs.
Schaus re-entered for Cornell's final at-bat and allowed
only one hit, which picked up an unearned run for the Big Red's final score.
