Ivy-Leading Softball Team Set to Host Brown This Weekend

Two weekends at Strubing Field stand between the Ivy-leading Princeton softball team and an Ivy League title and bringing the 2024 Ivy League Tournament to their home field.

vs. Brown | Live Stats | Int'l Video | Game Program
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. DH | ESPN+ Game 1 | Game 2 | Mental Health Awareness
Sunday, 12:30 p.m. single | ESPN+

Ivy standings: Princeton stands 11-4 in the Ivy League, two games up in the loss column on 12-6 Harvard and 12-6 Yale. Dartmouth (8-7), Columbia (8-7) and Brown (7-8) are the next three teams in the mix for the four-team Ivy League Tournament, set for May 9-11 at the regular-season champion's home field. Princeton has Brown this weekend and Cornell (3-12) next weekend to close the regular season.

NCAA stat rankings: Princeton's top NCAA stat rankings entering the week included standing 23rd in triples per game (0.32) and 30th in stolen bases per game (1.74). Individually, Brielle Wright stood third in the nation with eight saves. Allison Ha stands 15th among the toughest players to strike out, with oen K per 32.7 at-bats. Wright is 20th in strikeout-to-walk ratio with 5.25 Ks per walk. Sonia Zhang, the reigning Ivy Player and Rookie of the Week, is 20th nationally in on-base percentage (.526). As a team, Brown stands 11th in strikeout-to-walk ratio, with 3.52 Ks per walk, and 31st in doubles per game at 1.57. Alexis Guevara is 26th in walks per seven innings, at 1.16.

Saves record: With eight saves this season and nine in her career, Brielle Wright is matching and setting program and Ivy League saves records. Her eight saves has already surpassed the previous single-season record for the program (four) and the Ivy League (seven). She has tied the program record for career saves (nine), alongside Riley Wilkinson '19, and is one save behind the Ivy League record for career saves (10), held by a pair of Harvard pitchers, Rachel Brown (2009-12) and Katie Duncan (2016-19). Wright's next save will set the Princeton record and tie the Ivy record, and with two saves, she'll set an Ivy record.

On Princeton: At 23-11 overall and 11-4 in the Ivy, Princeton has won eight games in a row, the team's longest win streak since winning eight straight during the 2016 season. A win in Saturday's first game would give the Tigers their longest winning streak since a 10-game run during the 2002 season. A sweep, extending the streak to 11 games, would make it Princeton's longest winning streak since a 37-game run in 1996. Sonia Zhang leads the Tigers with a .413 batting average, and if she finishes the season at .400 or better, she'd be the first Tiger to finish a full-length season at .400 since Marissa Reynolds (.436) in 2017. Meghan Harrington (7-4, 4.40 ERA) and Cassidy Shaw (10-5, 4.44) have handled most of the starts on the season with Brielle Wright (3-2, 2.88) and Molly Chambers (3-0, 4.98) making a combined 44 appearances with Chambers getting two starts.

Ivy leaders: Sonia Zhang stands second in the Ivy League in batting average (.413) with Lauren Sablone fifth (.374). Zhang is fourth in slugging (.674), with Sablone seventh (.589) and Julia Dumais 10th (.553). Zhang is first in on-base percentage (.526) with Dumais sixth (.449) and Sablone (.427) ninth. Brielle Wright is fifth in the Ivy in ERA (2.88) and Meghan Harrington is 10th (4.40). Wright is third in opposing BA (.232) and Harrington is seventh (.264). Cassidy Shaw is fifth in Ks (62) with Harrington sixth (56) and Wright (42). For Brown, Jasmine Hsiao is 10th in the Ivy in batting average (.358) and 10th in on-base percentage (.426), and Lily Berlinger is eighth in on-base percentage (.427). Alexis Guevara is fourth in the Ivy in ERA (2.60) with Macy Borowski seventh (3.60). Guevara is fifth in opposing BA (.244) and Borowski is eighth (.271). Guevara is third in strikeouts with 82 and Borowski is fourth with 77.

On Brown: The Bears are 15-20 overall and 7-8 in the Ivy and are coming off a series against Columbia in which Brown took two of the last three games. With Brown in contention for an Ivy League Tournament berth, if the Bears make the top four, it'd be the first time since 2006 that Brown had an upper-division finish, with the Bears finishing third that year (The Ivy was split into two divisions from 2007-17 with Brown's top finish in that format as a tie for second in 2012).

The series vs. Brown: Princeton leads the all-time series with Brown 63-17-1. Princeton took two of three in Providence in 2023, swept the three-game series in Princeton in 2022 and in Providence in 2019, and took two of three in a series split between Providence and Princeton in 2018 in the first year of the three-game series format. The last time Brown won two games from Princeton in the same season was in 1997.

Up next: Both teams will have a midweek non-conference game, with Princeton going to Lehigh on Tuesday and Brown going to Providence on Wednesday, before wrapping the Ivy regular season next weekend when Princeton hosts Cornell and Brown hosts Penn.

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