Princeton University Athletics
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Ivy Title Defense Begins Saturday, Sunday for Princeton Softball
March 26, 2009 | Softball
PRINCETON -- It's been almost 11 months since the Princeton softball team last played a game in its home park, Class of 1895 Field. The memories from the Ivy League Championship Series last May 3 are just memories at this point with all the Ivy teams at 0-0 and needing to prove themselves once again.
For the Tigers, the quest for a sixth Ivy League title in the last eight years will begin Saturday against Yale and continue Sunday against Brown with doubleheaders starting each day at 12:30 p.m., weather permitting.
Princeton went on its annual spring trip to California last week, going 2-6 in eight games against Saint Mary's, San Jose State (two), Winthrop (two), Pacific, Santa Clara and Stanford. The Tigers have played in one-run games in 8 of their last 11 contests, ending up on the short end of six of those.
Three of the more noteworthy games on the trip included Michelle Tolfa's complete-game 4-0 shutout of San Jose State last Wednesday, which snapped a mini three-game losing streak for the Tigers. Two days after making her first pitching appearance in two years against SJSU, Kelsey Quist lifted the Tigers to a win with a walk-off home run to beat Winthrop 8-7 to open the Stanford tournament.
Later that night, Princeton played Stanford, ranked No. 4 in the country, for the third time in four years and a year after being blanked by the Cardinal 10-0 in a five-inning perfect game. The result was much closer this season, with a fifth-inning solo home run as the only Stanford batter to get past second base. The Tigers couldn't solve Cardinal ace Missy Penna for a run, but the 1-0 loss was Stanford's only one-run game of the tournament.
It was a busy week for the sophomore Tolfa, who pitched in seven of the eight games on the trip. She's tossed 65 of Princeton's 92 innings this season and has nine of the team's 14 decisions at 4-5.
Princeton boasts the Ivy League's top batting average at .291 and has 11 players batting over .220. The four over .300 are senior Kathryn Welch (.423), freshmen Kelsey VandeBergh (.419) and Nicole Ontiveros (.393) and sophomore Kristin Arguedas (.324).
Princeton has seven home runs this season with all coming from the big three home run producers from a season ago, Welch, Quist and Jamie Lettire. The junior Lettire has a team-best three, with five of her nine hits going for extra bases for a slugging percentage of .588. Princeton had 11 home runs heading into Ivy play during its team-record season of 55 round-trippers a year ago. It also had played more games pre-Ivy last season, so the homers-per-game average of .550 a year ago is close to the .500 average this season.
Yale (9-11), which had spring break a week before Princeton and spent it at the Rebel Games tournament near Orlando, Fla., has played fellow northeast teams in doubleheaders since and is coming off a twinbill sweep of Army Wednesday. The Bulldogs are close behind Princeton in batting average at .285 and are led by junior Lauren Huddleston at .543. Senior Rebecca Wojciak has thrown 58 of 129 innings this season.
Brown (4-10), which will meet Cornell Saturday, spent last weekend and the early part of this week in Florida and will enter the Ivy schedule on a six-game skid. The Bears are hitting .266 as a team, led by freshman Kate Strobel's .350 average, and will count again on senior Michelle Moses in the circle. Moses, a senior, has tossed 36 of the team's 82 innings.
Elsewhere in the Ivy League, Penn and Columbia will host Harvard and Dartmouth before inter-divisional play continues next weekend with the Ivy South teams traveling to Ivy North sites.