Slumping softball falls out of Ivy race

Going into this past weekend, the softball team needed a lot of help to have a shot at an Ivy title. But first, it needed to help itself by showing an undefeated Harvard squad that, despite early season missteps, it could compete with the best of the Ivy League.

Two losses later, however, the Tigers' Ivy season is over with only a 6-6 record to show for it. Now Princeton is left without an answer for its failure to perform up to early-season expectations. A doubleheader sweep of Drexel yesterday gives the Tigers some confidence, but it comes too late to salvage the team's Ivy hopes.

"There is really no explanation for our poor play," senior pitcher Sarah Peterman said. "It was just bad all around."

No one thing failed the Tigers this weekend — every aspect of Princeton's game seemed to falter. In the two games versus Harvard, the Tigers amassed a total of five hits, three runs and five errors. A small offensive output is nothing new to Princeton this season, but a surprising weakness from the starting pitching staff left the softball team without any sort of buoy to keep itself afloat.

The first game, however, started out promisingly enough. Princeton took an early 1-0 lead in the first but could not capitalize after that — leaving a total of five runners on base in the first four innings.

In the fourth, the entire potent Harvard lineup had faced sophomore starter Brie Galicinao and began to solve her vast array of pitches. The Crimson piled up three runs and five hits — with the help of one costly error that gave Harvard a lead that they would never relinquish. Three more runs in the fifth sealed the Tigers' fate and their hopes for an Ivy title with a 6-2 loss.

In the second game, Princeton hoped to rebound like it had all season. After one bad game, the Tigers would show their true team potential and salvage the doubleheader with a split. But once sophomore starter Dana Frieser allowed four runs in the fourth — with only one of the runs being earned because of two costly errors — Princeton needed some offensive production quickly.

But there was no comeback magic this time. Harvard pitcher Chelsea Thoke seemed to master the Tiger lineup as Princeton mustered only two hits and one run — off an RBI groundout by freshman outfielder Mackenzie Forsythe. After the Crimson scored four runs in the fifth inning — making the score a whopping 9-1 — the Tigers could not blame just one particular aspect for its failure this weekend.

"It just seemed like the momentum was on Harvard's side and not on ours," Galicinao said. "They simply scored when they had runners on base and did all the little things to win.

"They just played well and we just didn't."

The day before, Princeton exemplified the inconsistency that has plagued it all season in a doubleheader against Robert Morris. Coming off a day's rest, Peterman started game one, allowing five runs in three innings of work. The Tigers could not overcome this deficit and fell by a final score of 5-3.

Sophomore pitcher Sarah Jane White kept the Tigers in the second game with five solid innings of work — giving up only two runs. With the game tied at three in the closing innings, Princeton rallied once again and scored a whopping seven runs in the sixth — started by a two-run triple by junior catcher Vicki Siesta. After RBIs by Galicinao, junior catcher Devon Keefe and junior third baseman Lauren Poniatowski, Princeton took a commanding 10-3 lead that — after a final perfect inning of relief by Galicinao — became a 10-3 victory.

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In yesterday's doubleheader sweep of Drexel at 1895 Field, the Tigers drew on the pitching of Peterman in game one and an efficient offense in game two to send the Dragons home without a win. Through seven innings, Peterman allowed only two hits and no earned runs as Princeton claimed a 4-1 victory. In the second game, Siesta hit a two-run blast — her first home run of the season — in the fourth inning to help the Tigers to a 4-3 win.