Tigers Fall and Draw with Rider

Wednesday, April 27

Princeton, N.J.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

22-14-1

Rider

25-20

Rider

Princeton

Molly Chambers tossed six one-hit innings in Wednesday's tie.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

April 27, 2022 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

In 12 of 13 innings on Wednesday at Princeton Softball Stadium at Strubing Field, Princeton pitchers held Rider to a shutout on two hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts.

One big inning helped Rider take the first game, and through six innings in the nightcap before daylight had its due, the two Mercer County teams played to a scoreless draw.

The 6-2 Rider win saw Princeton go up 1-0 on the third on a leadoff double from Gianna Mavica that preceded a sacrifice bunt from Ashley McDonald and a Serena Starks sacrifice fly. Two innings later, Mavica had the RBI, doubling home a leadoff walk to Lauren Sablone for a 2-0 lead through five. The other side of the scorecard saw Alexis Laudenslager give up just a hit and four walks with five strikeouts through five innings, but once Laudenslager left the game, Rider broke through in the sixth for for six runs on five hits, a walk and an error before Ali Blanchard entered the game and kept the 6-2 deficit there. Blanchard finished out the game, going two innings and setting down all six batters she faced, striking out four.

Princeton had baserunners in five of the six innings in the nightcap and had four runners in scoring position, but the breakthrough hit didn't come. Against Molly Chambers in the circle, Rider didn't see that big hit either, going down in order in four of its six at-bats while Chambers stranded four runners, three in scoring position, across the third and fourth innings. Chambers allowed just a hit, a walk and a hit batter across the six shutout innings.

The 0-0 tie in game two came just two weeks after Princeton had a 3-3 tie at Lehigh. Before that, Princeton hadn't had a tie at all in 19 years, since 2003, had only four ties in its history prior to this season and never had two in the same season. None of the five previous to Wednesday ended 0-0.

Its last non-conference regular-season games behind it, Princeton will return to Ivy League play for a weekend that could clinch its next home games being the 2022 Ivy League Championship Series. At 14-4 in the Ivy, Princeton is tied in the loss column with Harvard and Dartmouth, each 11-4. If Princeton sweeps the three-game series at Columbia this weekend, it would need only one loss from Dartmouth over the Big Green's last six league games to clinch hosting the ILCS, as Princeton has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Harvard but not over Dartmouth. Harvard and Dartmouth will meet for three games this weekend at Harvard, and no other Ivy team has fewer than eight league losses.