Eight-Run Second Inning Seals Ivy Title as Softball Tops Harvard

Monday, May 9

Cambridge, Mass.

12:00 PM

Princeton University

Harvard (Game 2)

Stats

Eight-Run Second Inning Seals Ivy Title as Softball Tops Harvard

May 09, 2016 | Softball

By: Princeton Athletic Communications

Postgame video with Shanna Christian and Lisa Van Ackeren

Record	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E	L
(29-16)	1	0	2	2	0	2	0	7	11	1	7
(22-26)	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	5	2	6

WP - Cabe, LP - La Guardia

Record	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E	L
(23-26)	0	8	0	0	0	0	0	8	8	0	9
(29-17)	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	3	8	3	9

WP - Christian, LP - Smith

Box Score & Play-by-Play: Game 2 | Game 3

For the first time in eight years, and after accomplishing a few Ivy League Championship Series firsts, the Princeton softball team is the Ivy League champion and will play in the NCAA tournament.

Saturday, Princeton became the first visiting team to win a Game 1 in the 10 Ivy League Championship Series, which started in 2007. Monday, after waiting nearly 41 hours between pitches due to rain Sunday, the Tigers became the first visiting team to win the ILCS. In the clinching Game 3, Princeton's 8-3 tied the largest margin of victory in an ILCS game.

Harvard forced a Game 3 with a 7-1 win in Game 2. Saturday, the Crimson got out to a 5-0 lead through four innings before Princeton got on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a Kayla Bose hit that picked up a double by Mikayla Blaska. The game was halted due to darkness in the bottom of the sixth and was resumed Monday with Harvard needing six outs to close out the win. No batters reached base in the inning and a half played Monday.

All eight Princeton runs came in the second inning, a frame that saw Princeton send 14 batters to the plate to get six hits, two walks and a hit batter, with six players driving in runs and Bose bringing home two on a single.

As she did Saturday in Game 1, senior pitcher Shanna Christian went the distance in Game 3, taking a shutout into the fifth inning before Harvard broke through with a run to extend the game.

Princeton will learn its NCAA tournament destination Sunday in a 10 p.m. ET selection show on ESPNU.


In Game 2, Kayla Bose had the RBI that drove in Princeton's only run.
In Game 3, Shanna Christian went the distance in the circle for the second time in the series, delivering Princeton the win.

In Game 2, Harvard's Giana Panariello had the only multi-RBI hit of the game, driving home a pair of runs with a sixth-inning single that made it 7-1.

In Game 3, Danielle Dockx snared a line drive at shortstop to end the sixth inning, ending a Harvard rally to leave two Crimson runners on base after Harvard had already scored two in the inning.

• The championship is Princeton's 18th Ivy League title and first since 2008. The NCAA tournament appearance will be Princeton's ninth and first since 2008.

• It was the first time since 1995 that Princeton won two games at Harvard in a season.

• Harvard's Game 2 win snapped an eight-game winning streak for Princeton.

• Lisa Van Ackeren pitched for Lehigh in Princeton's last NCAA tournament game, in 2008 at UMass, and she'll be the coach in Princeton's next NCAA tournament game.

• Junior Marissa Reynolds had a hit in all four games of the Cornell series and all three games in the ILCS to run her hitting streak to seven games. She has driven in nine runs during that span.