Non-Ivy problems continue

Princeton (20-21 overall, 15-1 Ivy League) sent senior righthander Kristen Schaus to the circle. Schaus, who boasts 49 career victories and two 200-strikout seasons as a Tiger, found herself in the rare situation of facing a pitcher with better statistics and ultimately lost the close game.

“This was a pretty tough game,” Schaus said. “We only had one bad inning where they scored all three runs.”

The breakout inning came in the second, with the first hit coming from Lehigh star Lisa Sweeney. Sweeney is hitting over .400 on the season and leads the Mountain Hawks with 11 home runs. After Sweeney singled up the middle, rightfielder Alisha Gonzales attempted a sacrifice bunt.

Sophomore first baseman Jamie Lettire tried to throw out the lead runner at second, but Sweeney just beat out the throw. With two runners on base, Schaus had to contend with the heart of Lehigh’s lineup and immediately induced a fly-out and a strikeout. Mountain Hawks second baseman Megan Conrad kept the rally going, however, hitting a sharp single to leftfield to score Sweeney for the team’s first run.

Unfortunately for Schaus, a wild pitch and an error then cost her two unearned runs.

Sweeney, also Lehigh’s starter, was undoubtedly the game’s outstanding player.

Sweeney, who came into the game with 64 career victories, gave Princeton’s lineup ample demonstration of the skills that earned her such stellar numbers. With a 1.42 ERA, a 20-3 record and 244 strikeouts in 157.1 innings pitched, Sweeney has arguably posted her most dominant season for the Mountain Hawks this year.

Her 10-strikeout, one-run win gave Sweeney her Patriot League record-tying 65th career victory.

“You have to give [Sweeney] credit,” Schaus said of her counterpart. “She was really tough out there.”

In the fourth, Lettire came in to pitch for Schaus. She managed to keep the Hawks off the base paths, surrendering a mere two hits in three innings. Neither team was able to get much momentum going, as Princeton and Lehigh finished the game with only four hits apiece.

The Tigers stayed dormant until the top of the seventh, when their struggling bats began to come alive. Power-hitting sophomore outfielder Kelsey Quist struck out to begin the inning. Determined not to let the Tigers go down without a fight, Lettire doubled to rightfield and moved to third on sophomore infielder Collette Abbott’s groundout to the right side of the infield. Senior catcher and captain Beth Dalmut showed her leadership skills by singling down the rightfield line to knock in Lettire. The Tigers looked like they might mount a comeback, but Sweeney returned to top form just in time to induce a pop-up and end the surge.

“We just need to get comfortable in the batter’s box before our next several games this weekend,” Schaus said. “We looked pretty good at the plate; we just need to work on being able to string our hits together like Lehigh did against us today.”

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The Tigers must bounce back quickly from their mid-week loss to maintain their top position in the Ivy League. Cornell, who shares first place with Princeton, will take on the Tigers in a four-game set this upcoming weekend. If the Tigers can manage to take three of four from the Big Red, the league title will come home to Princeton. A split of the weekend games would force a playoff to determine who advances to the NCAA tournament. Princeton will now have two days to regroup and regain its stride before heading north to Ithaca to play on Friday. The team is confident it won’t let the loss to Lehigh plague it for long.

“Everyone is fine after the game,” Schaus said. “We are obviously disappointed we didn’t win, but overall we looked pretty good. So now we just really need to get intense about our matchup against Cornell this weekend.”