Princeton University Athletics
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Softball Heads to Final Ivy Weekend at Cornell
April 24, 2015 | Softball
Twitter: @putigers_live & @PUSoftball | Live Stats
Wednesday's win and suspended game versus Yale didn't do a whole lot to clear things up as the Ivy League softball race heads into its final weekend before the Ivy League Championship Series.
Princeton (8-7 Ivy) will head to Cornell (6-10) for 12:30 p.m. doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday. Penn (10-6) will head to Columbia (6-10) for a pair at 12:30 p.m. Saturday before returning home for two more against the Lions Sunday at 12:30.
There are all kinds of scenarios in the Ivy South with all four teams still mathematically alive. Saturday will go a long way in clearing things up, but what the Tigers need to do is win at least one more game than Penn this weekend in order to keep their divisional title hopes alive.
The Ivy North is much more clear. Only Dartmouth (14-2) and Harvard (11-5) are still alive, and all the Big Green have to do this weekend in their home-and-home with the Crimson is avoid getting swept. Just one win will seal both the Ivy North and hosting rights for the ILCS.
A sweep, of course, would be the best outcome for Princeton, and it'd also be a first against Cornell since the league went to divisional play with four games against divisional foes in 2007. Princeton's best has been taking three out of four in 2008 and 2013. The teams split three times, including last year, and Cornell has swept twice, in 2009 and 2012.
Senior Alyssa Schmidt leads the Tigers at the plate, batting .305 with a team-best seven doubles and four home runs. Six more Tigers are hitting better than .250 on the season. In the circle, Shanna Christian and Ashley LaGuardia are emerging as Princeton's top two of the five arms the team has used this season, with the pair having pitched a combined 157 2/3 of the team's 246 2/3 innings with five wins apiece. Christian has a team-best 2.44 ERA, having tossed her fourth complete-game shutout of the Ivy season Wednesday against Yale while coming within one out of a no-hitter.
Cornell enters having won three in a row, and five of its last six games, taking three of four from Columbia before sweeping a doubleheader from Siena Thursday. The Big Red hit .315 as a team and have eight players above .300 with Karlie Mellott (36-90) leading the team at .400. Maddie Orcutt and Meg Parker are the top two Big Red pitchers, with Orcutt throwing a team-high 98 2/3 of the team's 220 1/3 innings on the way to a 9-10 record and a 4.19 ERA. Parker brings a 4-5 record and a 5.82 ERA into the weekend in 61 1/3 innings.