Tigers Split Saturday in North Carolina, Sunday's Game Canceled

Saturday, February 15

Chapel Hill, N.C.

9:00 AM

Princeton University

2-1

George Mason

2-5

Princeton

George Mason

Abby Hornberger drove in seven runs on Saturday.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Tigers Split Saturday in North Carolina, Sunday's Game Canceled

February 15, 2025 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

A 17-4 win over George Mason preceded a 9-2 defeat to host North Carolina as the Princeton softball team left Chapel Hill on Saturday with a 2-2 start to the new season.

Sunday's game with George Mason has been canceled due to weather. The Tigers will return to action Feb. 27 at Texas A&M.

Game 1: Princeton 17, George Mason 4

A day after hitting four home runs against Drexel, the Tigers hit four more against George Mason, with Karis Ford, Abby Hornberger, Julia Dumais and Lauren Sablone homering and Ford, Dumais and Sablone doing so for the second straight day.

Princeton used a three-run second inning, including a solo homer from Ford, to respond to an Emily Lampel homer for the Patriots in the first, with Lauren Pappert bringing home two runs on a fly ball. An eight-run third inning followed for the Tigers, with Allison Ha getting a run-scoring single, Sonia Zhang doubling home two, a three-run homer from Hornberger, and a two-run homer from Dumais to make it 11-1.

George Mason kept the game alive with a Jasmine Mack three-run homer in the fourth to make it 11-4, but Princeton doubled that with a six-run seventh on the way to the 17-4 final. Hornberger made it five RBI on the day with a two-run double, Pappert added another RBI with a double, Dumais singled home a run, and Sablone capped it with her two-run homer.

Three arms saw time in the circle for Princeton in the opener, with Brielle Wright going three innings and allowing one run on one hit without a walk, striking out five. Keala Hollenkamp threw a third of an inning and allowed three runs on two hits and two walks, and Cassidy Shaw went three shutout innings, allowing just a hit and a walk, striking out three.

The run total was Princeton's most since scoring 21 against Coppin State in the 2013 season.

Game 2: North Carolina 9, Princeton 2

UNC got out to a three-run lead over the first two innings and led the rest of the way in its 9-2 win to close out the day.

After the UNC lead grew to 4-0 in the fifth, Princeton got on the board when Abby Hornberger had a two-out, two-run single in the sixth to bring home base hits from Ford and Ha to pull Princeton within 4-2. UNC responded with a five-run sixth to grow its lead, and the Tar Heels closed it out with a seventh that saw two Tiger walks without denting the deficit.