Princeton University Athletics
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Rutgers to Host Softball Wednesday
April 06, 2015 | Softball
A visit to Rutgers is next for the Princeton softball team, which will head to Rutgers for a single game Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The teams will play for the third straight season, and the Tigers are aiming for back-to-back wins in the series for the first time since sweeping a doubleheader in 2006. Since then, Rutgers won eight of nine in the series before Princeton's 5-3 win a year ago at Class of 1895 Field.
Princeton is coming off a tough trip to Dartmouth and Harvard and will host Columbia Saturday and Sunday, getting back into Ivy League play. As they all are, the weekend will be pivotal as Columbia leads the Ivy South at 5-3, one game ahead of Penn (4-4), two ahead of Princeton (2-4) and three in front of Cornell (2-6). The Tigers have played fewer Ivy games than the rest of the division since the March 27 twinbill against Yale was moved to April 22.
Junior Shanna Christian (2-4) holds the lowest ERA on the Tigers' staff at 2.95 and has thrown the second-most innings at 38. Freshman Ashley LaGuardia (4-9) has thrown 70 of the team's 171 frames and has a 3.38 ERA. At the plate, senior Alyssa Schmidt is the top Tiger, with a .284 average.
The Scarlet Knights are 19-9 overall and 7-2 in their first season in the Big Ten after a sweep of Michigan State in Rutgers' first home games of the season. Rutgers will head to St. John's Tuesday before hosting Princeton. Jackie Bates leads Rutgers offensively with a .404 average as one of seven batters at or above a .300 average. Alyssa Landrith (10-5) has thrown 99 of the team's 193 innings and carries a team-best 2.96 ERA, though Shayla Sweeney (4-1, 3.50, 46 IP) and Dresden Maddox (5-3, 7.37, 45 IP) threw last year's game against Princeton and are back this year.
Claire Klausner, Erica Nori and Shanna Christian combined efforts in the circle to get last season's win, with Nori getting the win in relief and Christian earning a save. Bates got three of Rutgers' eight hits while 11 of Princeton's 13 hits are back, led by two apiece from Haley Hineman, Emily Viggers and Skye Jerpbak.
A look at the Tigers and the Scarlet Knights is below.
 Princeton |
Princeton at Rutgers |
 Rutgers |
| 10-17 | Record |
9-9* |
| .225 | Team BA | .313 |
| .270 | Opponent BA | .291 |
| 3.36 | Team ERA | 4.42 |
| 2.64 | Opponent ERA | 5.53 |
| 2014, 5-3 at Princeton | Last Win in Series | 2013, 4-0 at Rutgers |