Opening Day Sees Softball Team Split in Florida

Friday, February 25

Leesburg, Fla. (The Spring Games)

1:30 PM

Princeton University

1-0

Siena

0-1

Princeton

Siena

Photo by: Andy Meng / Stageshot Photo

February 25, 2022 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

It was a split opening day for the Princeton softball team, which had a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Siena before a 5-0 defeat to Rutgers on the first of three days at the Spring Games in Leesburg, Fla.

Four hits in the first inning, with Angelina Stile and Ava Fitzmaurice each getting an RBI double, staked Siena to a 2-0 lead, but those were the last runs of the day for the Saints against Tiger starter Ali Blanchard and reliever Meghan Harrington. Blanchard went 4 2/3, striking out seven and giving up the two runs on six hits and two walks. Harrington, making her collegiate debut, went 2 1/3 shutout innings and allowed just two hits, striking out two without a walk.

Princeton tied it up in the third when Ashley McDonald led off with a double, Serena Starks reached on an error, and Allison Ha followed with a two-RBI single for her first collegiate hit to make it 2-2.

It stayed 2-2 until the seventh, when Grace Jackson started the inning with a base hit, Haley Hoffman followed with another, and against reliever Nicole Patille in for Fitzmaurice, Starks sent one back to the circle and Jackson scored for the go-ahead run. Harrington retired the side in the seventh, and Princeton had its season-opening win.

In game two, Rutgers got all its runs between the fourth and fifth innings. The Scarlet Knights had four hits and a hit batter in the inning, with Maddie Lawson, Taylor Fawcett, Taylor Lane and Kobie Hura each driving in a run in the fourth. Three hits in the fifth led to the final Rutgers run, with Payton Lincavage, Gabrielle Callaway and Kiersten Withstandley each getting a hit in the space of the first four batters of the inning and Withstandley driving in the run.

Starks and Adrienne Chang each had a hit for Princeton against Rutgers, with Alexis Laudenslager and Molly Chambers splitting the time in the circle.

Princeton will have two more on Saturday in Leesburg, with the Tigers facing Iowa at 11 a.m. and Notre Dame at 1:30 p.m. Video will be available here, with live stats against Iowa here and Notre Dame here.