Softball Splits Pair with Brown, Remains in Front in Ivy Race

Saturday, April 27

Princeton, N.J.

12:30 PM

Princeton University

23-12, 11-5

Brown

16-20, 8-8

Brown

Princeton

Julia Dumais had the walkoff hit in the seventh inning in Saturday's second game.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Softball Splits Pair with Brown, Remains in Front in Ivy Race

April 27, 2024 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

One each from a pair of down-to-the-wire games went to Princeton and Brown on Saturday at Strubing Field as the Tiger softball team remained atop the Ivy League following a 6-4, eight-inning first-game loss and a 5-4 walkoff win in game two.

Now 12-5 in the Ivy, Princeton remained two up in the loss column on Harvard and Yale, both 13-7, while Dartmouth (10-7), Columbia (9-8) and Brown (8-9) remain in the mix for a spot in the four-team Ivy League Tournament that the Tigers hope to host by finishing atop the league. Harvard and Yale will see their Ivy seasons end on Sunday while the rest of the league will still have a weekend to play before the May 9-11 Ivy tournament.

In game one, Princeton took a 2-0 lead with Allie Goodwin using a sacrifice fly to pick up a leadoff double from Sonia Zhang in the first inning and Allison Ha singling home a leadoff double from Julia Dumais in the third, but a four-run fifth inning for Brown proved damaging. Four hits and a walk lifted the Bears to a 4-2 lead, and though a Zhang walk and a Dumais hit-by-pitch put two on for Karis Ford to tie it up on a double to the fence in left, Princeton could only tie the game at 4-4 as it headed to the eighth.

Brown scored two runs on four eighth-inning hits to pull in front 6-4, and Princeton managed only a Caitlin Bish single in the bottom of the eighth as the Bears held on for the win.

Homers from Sonia Zhang and Lauren Sablone, big late-game hits from Karis Ford and Julia Dumais, and Sablone and Dumais connect for an out at the plate in highlights from today's twinbill! pic.twitter.com/IPfj9ISwny
— Princeton Softball (@PUSoftball) April 27, 2024

Alexis Guevara went the distance for Brown in the circle while Brielle Wright threw the last 3 1/3 innings in relief of Cassidy Shaw for the Tigers. Ha had a 3-for-4 game in the opener while Bish had two hits.

In game two, Princeton again led early, using a Zhang single and a Lauren Sablone two-run homer to take a 2-0 first-inning lead. Brown got one back in the second as the leadoff batter reached on a throwing error and came home two batters later on a ground ball. Brown tied it in the fourth inning when a drop in the outfield allowed a leadoff walk three batters earlier to score, making it 2-2.

Princeton pulled back in front with a Zhang home run that followed a Cate Bade hit to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead, but Brown came back again with a run each in the sixth and the seventh to tie it at 4-4. A walk and two hits in the sixth got Brown within 4-3, and a walk and a two-out base hit pulled the Bears even.

After coming so close to a seventh-inning walkoff in the first game with Ford's double to the fence, Princeton got the bounce it needed in the second game's last of the seventh. Sablone led the inning off with a single, and Dumais dropped a hit into left that took a hop and found its way into the left-field corner for a triple, allowing Sablone to get the game-winning run.

Zhang, Sablone, Dumais and Bade each had two hits while Meghan Harrington went the first 3 1/3 innings in the circle before giving way to Molly Chambers for the next 3 1/3. Wright got the win after recording the final out in the top of the seventh.

Princeton and Brown will finish the series with a single game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ in the U.S. and Stretch internationally with live scoring available here.