Softball wins three, loses seven on break, but shows promise

In sports, success is about getting up just one more time than you get knocked down. The way the women's softball team recovered from losing its initial three games of the season speaks volumes about the team's ability to deal with adversity and suggests that the Tigers will have yet another successful season.

Princeton began its season and the break by taking on Georgia Tech in a double header. Though the Tigers fell 8-1 and 4-0 to the Yellow Jackets, Princeton was not discouraged. After all, the Tigers were facing the toughest competition they will see all year and therefore expected every contest to be a tough one.

Losing both games of a double header is always a tough pill to swallow, but Princeton was able to put things in perspective and gear up for its game against the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.

The Tigers took the field opposite the Lady Mocs in game one, falling narrowly to Tenn-Chattanooga 2-1 in a thrilling contest that featured some great defensive efforts. Runs were few and far between in game one largely due to the efforts of freshman pitcher Erin Snyder. She had a no-hitter going into the fourth inning as neither team managed to break the 0-0 deadlock.

The Tigers finally took a brief 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh when senior utility player Erin Valocsik was batted home by junior P/OF Wendy Bingham. Unfortunately for Princeton, the Lady Mocs had an answer in the seventh as they quickly loaded the bases. Tenn-Chattanooga tied the game with a bunt and then got a sacrifice fly from Grace Pickett to edge the Tigers for the win.

The second game of the double header belonged to Princeton — the team avenged its loss in the first frame with a decisive 4-1 victory over Tenn-Chattanooga in the second.

The difference in the game was Snyder. She picked a great time to hit her first career home run. Snyder's shot put the Tigers up 2-1 in the second inning, and Princeton never looked back. The Tigers added two more insurance runs thanks to freshman IF Cristina Cobb-Adams' RBI single in the third and a sacrifice fly by Snyder that scored junior first base Kristin Del Calvo for Princeton's final run of the contest.

The Tigers were riding high after earning their first win of the season and proceeded to notch another by routing the Lady Volunteers of Tennessee, 6-0. Snyder set the tone early for Princeton as she flirted with perfection through four innings of play. She gave up just one hit, while teammate sophomore OF/IF Kristin Lueke took care of things on the offensive end with three hits and two runs.

Del Calvo and P/IF Melissa Finley made the Tiger victory a forgone conclusion with back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning. The win upped Princeton's record to 2-3 for its road trip down south.

In the second game of the double header with the Lady Volunteers, Tennessee got its revenge with an 11-5 win in what turned out to be a slugfest.

Things did not get any better for the Tigers as they were downed by Florida State 5-1 in the opening game of the Buzz Classic — the same score by which they were defeated by the Seminoles last year. Princeton then went on to drop its next two games versus Middle Tennessee and Nicholls State, 5-4 and 5-2 respectively.

Unable to get a win in its first three games at the Buzz Classic, the Tigers dropped down a peg after triumphing over Tenn-Chattanooga and Tennessee. Against Boston University, however, Princeton proved that it could get up after getting knocked down, defeating the Terriers 4-2.

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With the win, the Tigers finished the break 3-7 and did not leave the Buzz Classic winless. Snyder turned in another strong performance, striking out 14 Terriers en route to her All-Tournament honors. Finley hammered her third homer of the tournament in the victory to give Princeton a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Tigers never trailed in the game and kept Boston from establishing itself during the contest.