Softball prepares for Towson, looks to Ivy League weekend

Thursday afternoon's softball game on the Class of 1895 Field will feature a match up between two Tigers. The Princeton Tigers (19-13 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) face off against the Towson Tigers (22-12 overall, 2-1 CAA) for a pair of games that should provide a hearty warm up for Princeton for its more important weekend games against Ivy rivals Dartmouth and Harvard.

Towson, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, where softball is in its first year of competition, is riding a hot streak as of late. After starting the year a mediocre 10-10, the Tigers have since gone 12-2, most recently wining two out of three against in-conference rival Hofstra.

Towson sits in second place in the league, merely a half-game behind league-leader George Mason. If the Tigers continue to play the way they have been, however, they should be hard to catch in the six-team conference.

The Maryland-based Tigers are led by senior captain Brooke Clyde, named the CAA's player of the week last week. Clyde hit an impressive .381 (8-for-21) with five doubles, five runs scored, a home run, 10 RBI and two steals as Towson went 5-1 on the week. The third-baseman drove in all six Tiger runs in the 6-1 win over Hofstra on Sunday to tie Towson's single-game record. In the three-game set with the Pride, she batted .500 (5-of-10) with two runs and eight RBI.

Clyde and her fellow teammates will most likely face Princeton senior pitcher Brie Galicinao, the reigning Ivy League Player and Pitcher of the Year.

"Brie has been throwing great and hitting really well," head coach Maureen Davies '97 said. "She's had a lot of pressure on her after a great season last year, but she's been a great leader and a team player."

Galicinao has dominated from atop the mound this season. If the season ended today, her past two weekends might be good enough to garner her not only the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year award — again — but national honors. Two weeks ago, in the first Ivy contest of the season, the southpaw from Stockton, Calif. struck out eight while allowing just four hits in a 2-0 win against Penn, her second shutout of the week.

The senior hurled three straight complete game shutouts last week, including a pair of one-hitters over Columbia and Cornell. She also registered a save in game two of the Cornell doubleheader. In 16 innings of Ivy play, Galicinao totaled 19 strikeouts and allowed only two hits. Her numbers for the week were astonishing: 3-0, one save, 0.00 ERA, 25 strikeouts, and seven hits allowed in 23 innings pitched. Even more incredible, she has now pitched five consecutive shutouts for Princeton.

Coach Davies also expects her other two starters — sophomore Wendy Bingham and freshman Melissa Finley — to make an appearance in the doubleheader.

"I'm really happy with the way they've all been pitching," Davies said. "Wendy has really stepped up; she's more aware on the mound. Finley pitched five good innings against Cornell."

Towson has a strong pitching staff as well, with any of a number of pitchers potentially posing problems for Princeton. Senior Julie Hughes is the team's veteran from atop the mound, with a 40-29 record overall and the school's strikeout record of 309.

Hughes is backed up by a pair of sophomore righthanders — Beth Miller and Beth Wilcox. Miller was the ace of the Tigers' pitching staff last season, compiling a 14-6 record with two shutouts and 10 complete games. Her 1.46 ERA was second in the league. Wilcox, featured last season in mainly relief roles, has emerged to be a reliable third-starter for the team this season.

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After the Thursday afternoon game the team travels up north to play Harvard Saturday and Dartmouth Sunday in a pair of doubleheaders that begin at noon. Harvard, arguably the team's greatest rival, sits in second place in the league, just a game behind the Tigers.