Princeton University Athletics
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Lehigh to Visit '95 Field for Two Wednesday
April 14, 2015 | Softball
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Princeton's longest-serving and winningest softball coach, Cindy Cohen, coached against her alma mater, Temple, on a regular basis and Princeton's current coacn Lisa Van Ackeren, is doing the same.
The Tigers' third-season coach, Van Ackeren won four Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honors at Lehigh, guiding the team to three NCAA regionals and winning a game in each. One of those wins came against Princeton, in 2008.
Wednesday's doubleheader at the Class of 1895 Field will start at 3 p.m., and the team is using the games to promote awareness of Go 4 The Goal, an organization dedicated to fighting pediatric cancer.
Princeton's non-league rivalry with Lehigh dates back to 1985, and the teams played each other in nine of 11 seasons through 1996. The series didn't get renewed until 2003, and the teams have played each other every year since except for 2009 and 2014, when rain scuttled scheduled meetings.
Part of why Princeton and Lehigh have been regular non-conference foes is that the Mountain Hawks are a consistenly strong program, and this year is no difference. Lehigh comes to Princeton with a record of 26-6 overall and 10-1 in the Patriot League, with the team's only league loss coming to Holy Cross in 12 innings last weekend.
Princeton and Lehigh have faced two of the same non-conference opponents so far, with Florida A&M and Georgetown. Princeton split with both, and Lehigh took two from FAMU and one from Georgetown.
Lehigh has won the last four games in the series, sweeping doubleheaders in 2012 and 2013 with Princeton's last win coming in a split in 2011. Princeton last swept a twinbill from Lehigh in 2005, and the six doubleheaders since have all been splits or Lehigh sweeps.
The Mountain Hawks enter the doubleheader with a team ERA of 1.75, which entered the week as the eighth-best team ERA in all of Division I and is more than two runs a game better than opponents' team ERA of 4.25. Lehigh has also outhit its opponents .316 to .215. Individually, senior pitcher Emily Bausher's 1.40 ERA is the 19th-best in D-I, and junior Alexis Watanabe's .468 batting average is the 20th-best in D-I.
Princeton also enters the weekend on a hot streak, having swept all four games from Columbia in the team's first games at '95 Field this season. Senior Alyssa Schmidt leads the Tigers with a .300 batting average with sophomore Marissa Reynolds close behing at .296. Junior Shanna Christian, who threw two complete-game shutouts over the weekend against Columbia, leads Princeton with a 2.62 ERA in 56 innings of work, second-most on the team behind rookie Ashley LaGuardia (3.42).
Princeton's sweep of Columbia, coupled with Cornell taking one from Penn over the weekend, put Princeton and Penn atop the Ivy South with Princeton having two games in hand on the Quakers. But before those two games next Wednesday against Yale, Princeton and Penn will get together Saturday and Sunday for four games to resume the Ivy slate.
A look at the Tigers and the Mountain Hawks is below.
 Princeton |
Princeton vs. Lehigh |
 Lehigh |
| 14-18, 6-4 Ivy | Record |
26-6, 10-1 Patriot |
| .242 | Team BA | .316 |
| .267 | Opponent BA | .215 |
| 3.27 | Team ERA | 1.75 |
| 3.03 | Opponent ERA | 4.26 |
| 30 | All-Time Wins in Series | 15 |