In a weekend somewhat postponed by inclement weather and spring evenings, the softball team finished with a sweep of Yale (5-1, 2-0) while managing a win and a tie (2-0, 5-5) against Brown.
The Tigers suffocated the Bulldogs from the first inning and barely let their opponents come up for air. Princeton jumped on the scoreboard 3-0 on a three-run play that began when sophomore Kristin Lueke and junior Kristin Del Calvo both walked, and sophomore pitcher Melissa Finley singled. It finished when freshman pitcher Erin Snyder knocked a double down the right field line and brought the three base runners home.
This was only the beginning for Snyder. She pitched the first game without allowing any walks and striking out seven Bulldogs. A one-run double, Yale's only contribution to the scoreboard, was the only play that prevented a flawless pitching performance from Snyder.
Snyder was not the only Tiger on her game Sunday. Victory this weekend was entirely a team effort.
"Everyone had a part in the wins," head coach Maureen Barron said.
Nevertheless, several key plays by the Tigers made truly lasting impressions on Barron.
"If I had to pick plays of the day it would be Finley's homeruns and (freshman infield) Cobb-Adams defensive play," Barron added.
Both players indeed played a significant role in the team's success. For Finley, stellar performance is nothing new. The star pitcher is a two-time Ivy League player of the week this season.
In the first game, Finley brought home the final two runs for Princeton with a single in the fifth andwent three-fofour overall.
In the second game of the day, the pitcher continued where she had left off — as an offensive leader. Finley put Princeton on the board in the third inning for its only two runs in the game. After Lueke singled, Finley smacked the ball over the left field fence to score both players.
Offense was not the only territory that Finley conquered on Sunday. In the second game, the sophomore did not walk any batters and left Yale scoreless.
As for Cobb-Adams, the second game gave her the chance to show off strong defensive skills.
"Cobb-Adams had dynamite defensive plays at shortstop in the second game," Barron said.
Barron described how Cobb-Adams lunged for balls deep in the gap and still threw runners out at first.
Victory over the Bulldogs could be credited not only to the Tiger's offensive and defensive dominance, but also to atypical Yale play. Bulldog pitcher Ashley Linneback struck out no Princeton players in the first game, while two-time Ivy Player of the week, Yale's Beth Pavlicek, pitched only a five-hitter and struck out four Tigers.
The loss to Princeton puts Yale at a 12-17 overall record and 2-2 in the Ivy League. Before meeting the Tigers last weekend, Yale had wins over Penn (4-1, 6-2).
Brown, with an overall 11-13-1 record and 2-1-1 in the Ivies, also had a win over their only non-Princeton Ivy match, Penn, shutting out the Quakers 10-0, 6-3.
However, when the Tigers visited the Bears yesterday in Providence R.I., that was not the case with Princeton going 1-0-1.
In the first game of the doubleheader, freshman pitcher Erin Snyder, allowed no runs and only two hits as she shut down Brown in a 2-0 win. She also struck out 11 in seven innings.
The Tiger offense came up big in the fifth inning to break the scoreless tie, bringing in two runs.
In game two, Princeton took a 4-0 lead in the first inning, and it looked like this game would be a repeat of the rest of the weekend. But it was not to be, as the Bears came clawing back in the fourth inning, driving in two runs to cut the lead in half.
The Tigers managed one more run in the top of the fifth, making the count 5-2. It looked like Princeton once again had the game in the bag, but Brown would not go quietly into the fast approaching night. The Bears struck again, bringing in three runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the score at five.
The teams battled it out for three more innings before the game was eventually called due to darkness.
Though ending the weekend road trip on a tie, the wins will help to keep the Tigers in the race for another Ivy League championship.
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