Softball drops three of four in first weekend of league action

If one combines the final five innings of each softball game this weekend, the Tigers edged their opponents by a total of 11-10. If one then includes the first two innings in that equation, Princeton trailed, 13-1.

Due to these deficits, the Tigers found it difficult to stay in the ballgame and lost three out of their first four Ivy contests.

Princeton opened up its Ivy League slate last weekend with a pair of doubleheaders at home against the two top Ivy League teams from last year — Harvard Saturday and Dartmouth Sunday.

Princeton started the four-game stretch with a 2-1 win and a 6-5 loss against the Crimson (12-14 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) Saturday. Sunday, it gave two games to the Big Green (11-11, 4-0) by the scores of 8-0 and 8-5.

In the first game with Harvard, the defending Ivy League champions, Princeton started junior southpaw Brie Galicinao.

An observer would think that the Tigers might have been trembling in the wake of the Ivy powerhouse, but Princeton proved it would not be fazed.

"We knew that Harvard is a very good team and we went out with intensity and felt as though we could win," freshman pitcher Anna Soper said. "We didn't feel overwhelmed."

The scoring started in the second inning with a Crimson solo home run — the first run Galicinao had given up in four games.

The Tigers trailed 1-0 until the bottom of the fourth when Galicinao stepped up to the plate and knocked the ball over the left-field fence to even it up at one apiece.

The pitching duel continued through the rest of the game with both the Princeton and the Harvard pitchers striking out six apiece.

Princeton, however, was able to break through for the winning run when senior catcher Devon Keefe brought home junior shortstop Kim Veenstra after Veenstra got on base with a leadoff double.

The day's second game began in much the same way as the first but ended in contrast to that of the earlier contest.

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Harvard got on the board early with two home runs, making the score 3-0 after the first inning. The Tigers then rallied and took a 5-4 lead going into the fifth. With the lead this late in the game, however small, Princeton hoped to eke out yet another game from the Crimson — a team that had swept the Tigers in a two-game series last season.

This time, though, instead of a come-from-behind win for the Tigers, it was the Crimson who came back and won the game with a solo home run in the top of the seventh.

The taste of defeat after coming so close to a sweep of Harvard was tough for the Tigers, but the team recovered and began the short preparations for the next day's games.

"I think that we were disappointed that we lost but we knew that there are a lot of games to go," Soper said.

And the next game to go was divisional foe Dartmouth. The Big Green started the first game by taking a 5-0 lead after the top of the second and increased the margin to 8-0 in the top of the sixth.

In the bottom of the same inning, however, the Tigers put on their rally caps, and Galicinao both scored and knocked in a run to help narrow the Dartmouth lead to 8-3.

Princeton came even closer with two runs in the seventh, but fell to the Big Green by a final score of 8-5.

The second game of the day began like the one before, as the Tigers fell behind by the score of 4-0 after the first. This forced head coach Maureen Davies '97 to bring in freshman reliever Wendy Bingham to take the place of sophomore pitcher Sarah Jane White after White allowed all four batters she faced to score.

Bingham fared better than her predecessor, but, without the offense getting on the scoreboard, the Tigers saw Dartmouth build the lead to 8-0 after the fifth inning. At this point the mercy rule was enforced and the game was called, finishing off a disappointing 1-3 weekend.

"The disappointment goes along with the optimism, but this is our first Ivy weekend and we have many more games to go," Soper said. "We just want to go out with intensity from now on."