Update: Weekend Schedule Change; Softball Team to Visit Rider Wednesday

Wednesday, March 29

Lawrenceville, N.J.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

Rider

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Update: Weekend Schedule Change; Softball Team to Visit Rider Wednesday

March 27, 2023 | Softball

A quick trip down Route 206 is ahead for the Princeton softball team Wednesday afternoon as the Tigers will visit Rider for a 3 p.m. pair.

Live scoring will be available here.

The weekend's series at Penn has shifted to Friday-Sunday with rain expected Saturday. Friday will include a single game at 4 p.m. with a doubleheader set for Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

The Tigers are off to a 5-1 start in Ivy League play, the highest win total in the league. Princeton will look to build on that this weekend at Penn after the non-league twinbill at Rider.

Senior Serena Starks, who leads the Tigers with a .347 batting average, co-leads the Ivy in hits, with 26, while classmate and reigning Ivy Pitcher of the Week Alexis Laudenslager leads the league in strikeouts, at 78. Laudenslager (4-8, 3.05 ERA) has thrown 59 2/3 of the team's 146 1/3 innings pitched, while rookie Brielle Wright (2-2, 3.60) has thrown 35 innings, junior Molly Chambers (3-2, 3.78) has thrown 29 2/3, and sophomore Meghan Harrington (0-1, 3.50) has thrown 22.

Adrienne Chang, also a senior, hits .333 as the second Tiger hitting better than .300 on the season. Senior catcher Ashley McDonald is 13th in the nation with nine runners caught stealing, and Harrington's three saves have her 11th in the nation in that stat.

Jadeyn Merrill leads the Broncs with a .314 batting average while Kathryn Schmierer (1-5, 2.95 ERA), Fallyn Stoeckel (2-4, 3.36) and Jessie Niegocki (3-5, 3.53) have all thrown between 33 and 42 innings on the season for Rider. Stoeckel ranks 27th in the nation in walks allowed per seven innings, at 0.84.

Princeton leads the all-time series with Rider 46-13-1. The teams met last season in Princeton, with Rider winning the doubleheader opener 6-2 before the teams played six scoreless innings before the nightcap ended in a tie. Prior to last season, the teams' last visit was before the pandemic pause in a split doubleheader in Princeton in 2019. This will be Princeton's first visit to Rider since a single game in 2016.