Softball looks to stay in hunt for Ivy crown against Cornell, Columbia

Coming into this season the softball team was very optimistic about its chances for an Ivy League title.

With a new coach, Maureen Davies '97 — a former star pitcher at Princeton — and with a lineup packed with experienced upperclassmen, the sky seemed to be the limit early in pre-season training.

But things haven't turned out exactly as planned — after winning its first two games the team has since been inconsistent, earning a sub-.500 overall record at 12-13 after being swept yesterday by Hofstra. The Tigers have also only managed to split in three of its four doubleheaders against Ivy League teams, while getting swept in the other.

Coming into this weekend's play with a 3-5 Ivy League record, the team needs to sweep its doubleheaders against league-leader Cornell and second-to-last-place Columbia, and hope for losses by second-place Dartmouth, to remain in contention for the crown. Though the team faces Penn next week, the entire club realizes that in order for that doubleheader to have any meaning they must bring to this weekend a level of game which, as of yet, they have failed to achieve.

Columbia, who the team faces in New York Saturday afternoon for a doubleheader, was shutout in its first four Ivy League contests but has since posted a 3-3 record in Ivy League play for an overall Ivy League record of 3-7. Following victories over third-place Harvard, 2-1, and second-place Dartmouth, 4-0, last weekend, Columbia began a trend which, if it can keep posting runs, should be in its favor in the weeks to come—the Lions have won every Ivy League game it has scored in and has been shutout in every loss.

League-leader Cornell, holding an 8-2 league record, will play the Tigers in a doubleheader Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y. For Cornell, only one game in front of Dartmouth, these games are as significant as they are for the Tigers if it wishes to win the league. Cornell can clinch at least a share of its second Ivy League championship in three years with four wins. Though splitting last weekend's doubleheaders with Harvard and Dartmouth, the Big Red was a perfect 6-0 in the first three weeks of Ivy League play. After blanking Columbia in early April, 1-0 and 4-0, the team then rallied from deficits of eight runs in the first game and six runs in the second game to stun Brown, 14-10 and 13-12, in play last weekend. As if this offensive strength wasn't enough, the Big Red, living up to their name, then destroyed Yale, 10-1 and 8-0, in games that were ended in the fifth inning due to the mercy rule.

As these offensive showings prove, Cornell surely has the power to win the Ivy Leagues. Most notable on the offense is freshman utility player Kate Varde. Varde set the Cornell team record for home runs in a season, nine, in the second game against Yale two weekends ago. In the first game last weekend against Dartmouth Varde accomplished a feat even more impressive, hitting three home runs in the 11-3 romp of the Big Green. The home runs gave her 12 on the season, pulling her, as only a freshman, to fifth, just six home-runs back, on the all-time home run list for the team. The 12 home runs also ties an NCAA record, which had been previously accomplished by 13 other players.

But don't underestimate Cornell's defense, especially its pitching. Forgetting about their hiccups against Brown, the Big Red pitchers have let up just nine runs in six games against Ivy League teams.