Softball splits doubleheader against Boston University

Aldous Huxley once wrote, "Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." This weekend, softball helped to confirm this truth, splitting its second set of home games against Boston University after going 1-1 against Rutgers just last Wednesday.

Even though the Tigers stumbled in their first game, the weekend was also an excellent example of the defensive abilities and offensive potential that Princeton possesses. The Tigers gave up only three hits in each game to the Terriers and committed only one error the entire weekend.

Despite an excellent defensive effort in its first game, Princeton was unable to capitalize on its five hits, leaving two runners on base at the end of the second and sixth innings. Senior Kristin Del Calvo was the Tigers' most productive hitter of the game, going 2-3. Junior pitcher Melissa Finley struck out seven batters and allowed no walks. At the end of the day, however, Princeton's lack of offense would overshadow its superb defensive effort as BU left with a one-run win off a hit in the seventh.

"It's so tough to pinpoint what went wrong," Finley said. "We just couldn't score once people got on base, which has been the story for us all year."

Nonetheless, the impressive defensive performance in this game, as well as in the second, was more than encouraging to a Princeton team trying to gear up to begin its more serious Ivy League competition.

"We know that we should have produced some offense in that first game and that we let ourselves down," Finley said. "At the same time we played great defense and didn't make many errors, so I don't feel like we beat ourselves. It was a close game, and we didn't happen to be on the winning side of things."

In the second game, the Tigers' offense picked up. Princeton more than tripled its hits from the previous game, racking up 17 on the game and scoring seven runs.

The game started off with an initial run from junior Kristin Lueke, and the Tigers ended the inning up 4-0 off of junior Ty Ries' three run homer. After the second inning Princeton led 7-0, bolstered by runs from Finley, Lueke, and senior Wendy Bingham.

The Tigers proceeded to give up four runs in the third and another in the fifth, but kept hold of the 7-5 victory as they held off the Terriers for the remainder of the game.

Finley and Ries were responsible for over a third of the team's runs, each went 3-4 during the game. More impressive, though, was the fact that nine different players on the Princeton squad had hits, proving just how deep this offense can be.

"Everyone contributed, and it was a real team effort," Finley said. "We were really pumped up after our last loss and really wanted to show them what sort of team we were."

Princeton still seems to be struggling to find the consistency it needs to pull together a winning record. Splitting their games last Wednesday against Rutgers as well as splitting their Spring Break games 5-5, the Tigers are still trying to demonstrate that they can play with a constant edge.

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"I think it's still early right now," Finley said. "Sometimes we have a great defensive effort, sometimes our offense is really good – we just need time. When we bring it all together, that's when we beat great teams like Pacific. It's just hard to stay that consistent early in the season."

Now, with its first Ivy League matches only three games away, time will soon tell whether Princeton will be able to pull together the solid level of play it needs to prove, contrary to Huxley's beliefs, that the quick can be just as constant as the dead.