Princeton University Athletics
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Softball Looks to Continue Strong Ivy Start at Yale, Brown
April 03, 2008 | Softball
PRINCETON -- Following its first doubleheader sweep of Harvard since 1996 and a 4-0 start to the Ivy League season for the third straight year, the Princeton softball team will take to the road to visit Yale Saturday and Brown Sunday for a pair of doubleheaders with both days starting at 12:30 p.m.
The Tigers have started 4-0 in Ivy play 13 times since the league went to the current regular-season doubleheader format in 1985. In 11 of those 13 seasons, Princeton won or shared the Ivy League title. Since the Ivy League began sending its champion to the NCAA tournament in 1994, a 4-0 start has led to a postseason berth on six of the last eight occasions.
But pulling a similar feat in 2008 won't be easy. Though the Tigers have the Ivy South lead at present, Columbia and Penn are just a game back at 3-1 after both swept Brown and split with Yale last weekend. Cornell, which was unable to play due to weather last weekend, will host Harvard Thu., Apr. 3 and Dartmouth Wed., Apr. 9 in makeup games around this weekend's trip, also to Brown and Yale.
History does favor the Tigers this weekend. Princeton is 41-8 all-time against Yale with a seven-game winning streak (2004) and 38-10-1 against Brown, having won 12 in a row against the Bears (2001). Though it ended in a Princeton sweep, last year's trip to Yale and Brown was anything but a breeze. Starting the weekend at Brown Mar. 31, Princeton was outhit 3-2 in game one but had both its hits in the same inning. Collette Abbott had the second of those with a two-run home run to back up a shutout bid by Kristen Schaus in a 2-0 win. The Tigers needed runs in the seventh to tie and eighth to win in game two, 4-3. The following day at Yale, Princeton won 4-1 in the opener, but only after scoring three runs in the top of the 10th. That was followed by a 6-3 win in game two in which Princeton led start to finish.
Princeton ended last weekend as the Ivy League leader in home runs, pitching strikeouts and fielding percentage. The home run total is thanks in large part to eight blasts last weekend. Three came from Kathryn Welch, including two in the second game against Dartmouth. Two more each came from Jamie Lettire and Kelsey Quist, and Abbott had one. Princeton's 19 home runs top Cornell's 13 as the next-highest total. Schaus has led Princeton to its league-best 149 strikeouts with 115 of her own. That gives the senior 759 for her career, behind only former teammate Erin Snyder '06 (819) on the Princeton list.
Yale (12-12, 2-2 Ivy) is coming off being swept by Fairfield in a midweek doubleheader Wednesday. The Bulldogs have four players batting over .300 with sophomore Ashley Sloan setting the pace at .397. Yale has five pitchers, all of whom have shared a significant portion of the team's innings. Sophomore righthander Kayla Kuretich leads the team with a 5-2 record and 0.95 ERA.
Brown (5-10, 0-4 Ivy) was swept by Columbia and Penn last weekend to start the Ivy season. Senior Linnea Anderson is hitting an Ivy-best .462 and junior righty Michelle Moses has thrown 55 2/3 of the team's 94 2/3 innings with a 5-4 record and 1.51 ERA.