Princeton University Athletics
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Ivy Title, NCAA Berth at Stake as Softball Hosts Harvard in Ivy League Championship Series
May 01, 2008 | Softball
PRINCETON -- A 17th Ivy League championship and eighth NCAA tournament berth will be on the line Saturday and Sunday when the Princeton softball team hosts Harvard for a best-of-three series at Class of 1895 Field. Saturday will see a doubleheader beginning at 12:30 p.m. with one game, if necessary, Sunday at 12:30.
Derek Jones, a veteran of Princeton's women's basketball broadcasts, will be on the call from Class of 1895 Field. Click here for the live, free broadcast.
On the championship ...
The Ivy League went to the two-division format with the Ivy League Championship Series only in 2007. Since Princeton began varsity softball in 1982, the Ivy League determined its champion through a full tournament until 1984 and then through round-robin doubleheaders from 1985-2006.
Princeton has won 16 Ivy League titles. The last came in 2006, the final year of the single-division format. Since the Ivy League began sending its champion to the NCAA tournament in 1994, Princeton has won an Ivy bid seven times (1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006).
At last season's inaugural softball ILCS, Harvard hosted and swept Penn. The Crimson's Shelly Madick tossed a no-hitter in game one.
Princeton assistant coach Alexis Alcantara was an assistant coach on the Penn team that won the Ivy South last season.
Princeton won hosting honors through its superior Ivy League overall record. The Tigers finished 18-2 while Harvard was 14-6.
While this is the first softball ILCS to be played at Princeton, the Tiger baseball team has hosted four, in 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003. Princeton defeated Harvard in 1996, lost to Harvard in 1997, defeated Dartmouth in 2001 and defeated Harvard in 2003.
The road to the ILCS ...
Princeton started the Ivy League season 14-0 before losing the third game of a four-game set to Penn. The Tigers then won their next two before dropping game two of the four-game series to Cornell. Both Princeton and Cornell entered last Sunday at 16-2, and Princeton swept the doubleheader to win the division title.
Harvard clinched its Ivy North title before the final weekend began. The Crimson ended the inter-divisional portion of the schedule at 5-3 with two losses to Princeton and one to Cornell. Harvard swept Yale, took three of four from Brown and split with Dartmouth in its own division.
Princeton's 18 Ivy League wins are the most Ivy softball wins ever. Since the Ivy League began sponsoring baseball in 1993 (previously Ivy teams plus Army and Navy played in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League) and using the two-division, 20-game format, only one Ivy baseball team has managed as much as an 18-2 finish. That was Harvard in 1997.
On Class of 1895 Field ...
Princeton is in its 24th season at Class of 1895 Field after moving from Broadmead Field (near the Clarke Field baseball stadium) in 1985. At '95 Field, Princeton has a 105-29 record against Ivy League teams.
Princeton did not have female students until 1969 and didn't sponsor varsity softball until 1982, but the Class of 1895 Field is named so because that year's graduates made a gift in 1929 that was eventually used on '95 Field's current location.
'95 Field has hosted postseason softball in the past. Princeton swept two games from Lehigh in an NCAA play-in in 1994 and needed three games to take two from Rider in a 1995 NCAA play-in. The Tigers also hosted an NCAA Regional that year, going 3-0 with a win over Hofstra and two over Connecticut. Princeton's final time hosting postseason softball was a 1996 NCAA play-in when the Tigers swept Canisius.
Head coach Trina Salcido ...
Princeton head coach Trina Salcido (Oregon '97), a native of Sacramento, Calif., is in her first season as the Tigers' skipper. She was an assistant coach under Maureen Barron for three seasons after moving east from California's capital city where she was an assistant coach at Sacramento City College and head coach at her alma mater, El Camino High.
Assistant coaches ...
Alexis Alcantara, a native of Levittown, Pa., attended high school here in Mercer County at Notre Dame. Alcantara, who pitched at Hofstra ('04), serves as Princeton's pitching coach. Cristina Cobb-Adams, a Dublin, Calif., native, was a two-time All-Ivy shortstop for the Tigers before graduating in 2006.
All those home runs...
Princeton leads the Ivy League with 51 home runs, shattering its previous program record of 38 (2005). All of the program's top eight seasonal home run totals were set in the current decade.
The Ivy League record of 57 home runs belongs to Cornell, set in 2004.
Princeton entered the week ranked 14th in Division I in home runs per game at 1.13.
Three Tigers ? Kathryn Welch, Kelsey Quist and Jamie Lettire ? co-lead the team with 13 home runs apiece. All three are chasing Melissa Finley '05, who set her record of 14 as a sophomore in 2003. Finley is now an assistant coach at Penn.
Ks for Kristen...
Princeton senior Kristen Schaus has 816 career strikeouts heading into the ILCS. Three more will tie her with former teammate Erin Snyder '06. With the two anchoring Princeton's staff, the Tigers made NCAA appearances in both of their common seasons (2005, 2006).
The series vs. Harvard ...
Earlier this season, Princeton swept a doubleheader from Harvard for the first time since 1996. It came here at '95 Field with a pair of one-run victories. A Collette Abbott home run gave Princeton three of its five runs in game one as it held on for a 5-4 win. Kelsey Quist had all three RBIs on a pair of doubles in Princeton's 3-2 nightcap win.
The comeback ...
Princeton's last two games to win the Ivy South title were certainly exciting. The Tigers were behind 7-1 in the third inning of game one and 11-6 in the sixth inning while scoring its last 11 runs via the home run. Kathryn Welch's first blast of the day cut it to 7-3, while Megan Weidrick homered to make it 7-6. After Cornell recouped four runs, Welch hit a grand slam in the sixth to make it 11-10, and Jamie Lettire's home run two batters later put it at 12-11 in favor of the Tigers. In game two, Princeton held a 4-2 lead before Cornell scored three runs. Princeton still trailed 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh, but Welch and Lettire hit solo home runs in Princeton's last at-bat to win it.
League leaders ...
The three top overall home run hitters in the Ivy League are all Tigers as Kelsey Quist, Kathryn Welch and Jamie Lettire each have 13. The trio also leads in Ivy games with Welch at 11 and Quist and Lettire with nine each.
The Quist-Welch-Lettire trio also leads the league in slugging percentage in Ivy games. Quist has slugged 1.035 in the 20 league games. Jamie Lettire ranks second in batting in Ivy games at .456 and Kelsey Quist is third at .455. Kathryn Welch has touched home plate more than any other Ivy Leaguer in league games, scoring 24 runs.