Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell (Game 1)
Players Mentioned
Rounsifer's 7-RBI Game Leads Softball to Split at Cornell in Finale
May 01, 2011 | Softball
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Capping its season, the Princeton softball team split a doubleheader at Cornell Sunday, with the Big Red winning 14-1 in five innings in game one and the Tigers bouncing back to win 12-2 in the nightcap.
The Tigers finish the sesaon at 16-26 overall and 7-13 in Ivy League play, while Cornell, which had already wrapped up the Ivy South division before the day began, ends the regular season at 26-20-1 overall and 11-7 in the league. The Big Red will head to Harvard for next weekend's Ivy League Championship Series to determine the winner of the Ivy's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
Cornell pushed across one run in the first inning against Michelle Tolfa (4-7) and Princeton in the opener before scoring nine in the second inning against reliever Liza Kuhn to push the game into run-rule territory early. After Princeton got on the board in the top of the fourth against Elizabeth Dalrymple (18-8) with a Kelsey VandeBergh home run, the Big Red tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the fourth before the Tigers completed their fifth at-bat to make the game official.
It was Princeton that piled on the runs in the nightcap, rebounding from a first-inning Cornell run to take a 2-1 lead on a Sarah Rounsifer home run in the top of the second in support of pitcher Alex Peyton (6-12). The Tigers scored four more against Dalrymple in the fourth with Rounsifer bringing home three of them on a bases-clearing double.
Senior Megan Weidrick, who homered on her final day at the Class of 1895 Field Friday against the Big Red for her first home run of the season, homered again on her final day as a Tiger to give Princeton an 8-1 lead in the sixth, and Princeton still had more left. Two batters after Maddie Cousens hit a two-run home run in the top of the seventh, Rounsifer completed a 4-for-4 game with seven RBIs, blasting a two-run shot to put Princeton ahead 12-1 before the Big Red pushed one across in the bottom of the seventh.
Rounsifer's seven RBIs were a season-high for any individual Ivy Leaguer during the regular season and were the most for any Tiger batter in a game since at least 2003.