Tigers Split with Drexel to Cap Season Like No Other

Tuesday, May 4

Princeton, N.J.

2:00 PM

Princeton University

0-2

Drexel

25-9

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Drexel	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	3	4	0
Princeton	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	6	0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Drexel	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	6	1
Princeton	0	0	0	0	2	0	X	2	2	0

Lauren Pappert reacts to her go-ahead two-run double in the fifth inning of the second game against Drexel on May 4, 2021.

Lauren Pappert had the go-ahead two-run double in Tuesday's second game.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Tigers Split with Drexel to Cap Season Like No Other

May 04, 2021 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

On the team's lone home date of a 2021 season that was both long in making and short in happening, the Princeton softball team split with an opponent in Drexel that leads its division in the Colonial Athletic Association and will continue on this spring.

Tuesday marked a finale for the Tigers, the celebration of careers that didn't get to see as much softball as expected and others whose careers, while shortened as well, are still just beginning.

The doubleheader at Princeton Softball Stadium at Strubing Field, which saw its first regular-season games with the Drexel doubleheader, was possible because of Princeton University's move in April to phase four of the Ivy League's return-to-play protocol, which allowed for local competition. The Tigers opened their brief playing window last Thursday at Villanova, battling the Big East-leading Wildcats within a run, before hosting Drexel.

Tuesday's first game saw sophomore Alexis Laudenslager one of those just-beginning careers whose 2020 season was stopped just eight games in due to the pandemic, go 6 1/3 innings and allow three runs on two hits and two walks, striking out nine. Rookie Molly Chambers, who went on to throw the nightcap, went the last 2/3 of an inning after Laudenslager took a comebacker off the leg, gave up the final run in Drexel's 3-1 first-game win.

Drexel opened the scoring when a hit batter and a walk put two on for Hannah Walker to drive in the game's first run with a base hit. The Dragons held the 1-0 lead until the sixth, when Madison Hamilton led off with a double and Mackenzie Meyer put down a successful squeeze two batters later to bring Hamilton home.

End 6th | Princeton 1, Drexel 1
Tie game!
Mackenzie Meyer puts down the squeeze bunt to bring home Maddie Hamilton, who doubled.

Watch the game here: https://t.co/viqJecQrBa pic.twitter.com/lqi1MSP6go
— Princeton Softball (@PUSoftball) May 4, 2021

Drexel regained the lead in the seventh, when Megan Trivelpiece cashed in a base hit and a hit batter earlier in the inning with a two-out single to put Drexel up 3-1. Olivia Farris, the last of four pitchers for the Dragons, closed it out and picked up the win.

The fifth inning saw all the scoring in game two, with Trivelpiece coming through with a bases-loaded walk to put Drexel on the board. Chambers and the Tigers left the bases loaded to limit the scoring there, and in the bottom half of the inning, a walk to Lauren Murphy and a dropped fly ball off the bat of Hannah Lutz helped set the stage for rookie Lauren Pappert to drive in Lutz's pinch runner Caitlin Bish and Haley Hoffman, who reached on a fielder's choice, to put Princeton in front.

End 5th | Princeton 2, Drexel 1
Two-run double for Lauren Pappert! Tigers in front!

Watch the game here: https://t.co/viqJecQrBa pic.twitter.com/MrhN86tkAk
— Princeton Softball (@PUSoftball) May 4, 2021

That was enough for Chambers, who limited Drexel to a run on six hits and four walks, striking out five and getting the Dragons to strand 11 runners.

Along with seniors Meyer and Lutz, the games were the last for classmate Allie Reynolds, who missed the brief competition season due to injury and threw out an honorary first pitch prior to game two.