Softball Team Splits With Columbia, Claims Ivy South Title

Saturday, April 22

Princeton, N.J.

12:30 PM

Princeton University

21-15, 13-2

Columbia

18-23, 7-8

Columbia

Princeton

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Softball Team Splits With Columbia, Claims Ivy South Title

April 22, 2017 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

It took a wild bottom-of-the-seventh comeback against Columbia and a result up in Ithaca, but the Princeton softball team has claimed the Ivy League South division title.

The Tigers have clinched a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series in two weekends, though where that will be played and against which team is still to be determined. Princeton, heading into Sunday, holds a two-game lead on Dartmouth for the best league record in the Ivy, and the Big Green are up on Harvard by 2 1/2 games.

Rain messed with the Ivy schedule, with Princeton moving its games to Friday-Saturday while the rest of the league stayed Saturday-Sunday. The Tigers and Lions battled through the rain all afternoon and endured a 62-minute rain delay in Saturday's opener but got both games in. Harvard, the second-place team in the Ivy North, got just one game in against Brown, and full Sunday doubleheaders are scheduled for the rest of the league aside from Princeton and Columbia.

All the Ivy teams will be back in action next weekend with home-and-home series. Princeton will host Cornell Saturday before heading to Ithaca for a pair Sunday. Penn was in upstate New York and split with Cornell Saturday, giving Princeton the result it needed to clinch the Ivy South despite a second-game loss to Columbia back at the Class of 1895 Field.

Princeton won the opener 6-5 with four seventh-inning runs. Claire Klausner and Madison Canby battled for five scoreless innings with Princeton leaving six on base over that span and Klausner taking a no-hitter into the sixth with just one walk allowed. Columbia's Alexandra Yule broke up the no-no bid with a leadoff home run, and an error, two walks and a single helped Columbia score two more runs to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth.

Princeton got two back in that inning, putting Marissa Reynolds on with a single and Kelsey Smith on with an error for Alex Viscusi to line a two-run double into left. Columbia got both of those runs back in the seventh, adding a Jordan Townsend leadoff homer and loading the bases with two walks and a single for Madison Gott to pick up the second run on a sacrifice fly.

That left Princeton down 5-2, but the Tigers put together a rally. Five straight Tigers reached with Allison Harvey and Marissa Reynolds smacking back-to-back doubles to pull Princeton within 5-4. After a walk to Kaylee Grant, Keeley Walsh singled home Reynolds for the tying run, and two batters later with Princeton down to its final out, Viscusi singled through the left side and a misplay in the outfield allowed Joey Smith, running for Grant, to take the extra base and make it home from third for the winning run.

Riley Wilkinson, who entered in the sixth, got the win in relief for Princeton.

Princeton let opportunities slip in a 9-4 game two loss, leaving 12 runners on base and eight of those in scoring position. Columbia scored four times in the third inning on five hits and two walks to put Princeton in a hole, and though Walsh drove home a walk to Harvey to pull Princeton within 4-1, the Tigers never closed the gap.

The Lions added two more in the sixth and another in the seventh to grow their lead to 7-1, and the advantage became six runs after Columbia added two more in the seventh.

Princeton used three hits and two errors in the bottom of the seventh to plate three runs including two on a Kaitlyn Waslawski single, but the Lions halted the rally there.

Maura Lynch picked up the win in relief for Columbia while Erica Nori took just her second loss of the season.

Harvey finished the series going 8 for 15 with eight RBI. Her two doubles and a home run lifted her slugging percentage for the weekend to 1,083, and with four walks, the rookie had an on-base percentage of .750.

Princeton's regular-season home finale with Cornell is set for a 12:30 p.m. start Saturday.