The softball team might have lost most of its weekend battles in its season-opening Maryland Tournament, but it emerged from its first weekend of play confident about the rest of the season. Princeton (1-4 overall) split its games against Mount St. Mary’s (7-5) but fell twice to Maryland (8-7) and once to Towson (6-3).
The Tigers lost their first game of the tournament to Mount St. Mary’s in a nail-biter that came down to the international tiebreak rule. Tied 2-2 at the end of regulation, Princeton managed to score two runs on RBI singles by freshman first baseman Alex Peyton and junior third baseman Megan Weidrick in the top of the eighth inning. Mount St. Mary’s was able to eke out three runs off senior pitcher Jamie Lettire, though, giving Princeton a 5-4 defeat in its season opener.
“It was a close game, and it came down to the last inning,” Peyton said of the loss. “There isn’t really much you can do to prepare for that. You just have to be ready to play and keep going all the way through the end.”
Things didn’t get easier for the Tigers in the second game of their Friday afternoon twin bill. Princeton dropped its first game against Maryland 9-0, with Lettire managing the team’s only hit of the contest. Maryland pitcher Kendra Knight powered through the Princeton lineup, earning a 12-strikeout complete-game shutout.
“I don’t know if we came out flat or what,” Lettire said. “The pitcher was a lot faster. We didn’t necessarily adjust at the plate, but I don’t think it was just us not being as prepared as we could have been. It was our second game out, and we were just a bit taken aback.”
“You want everybody to be challenged,” head coach Trina Salcido said. “It’s like a wake-up call that now it’s game time again and you have to compete.”
The high point of the weekend came on Saturday’s first game as the Tigers powered past Mount St. Mary’s 6-1. Peyton achieved two milestones in the game, hitting her first career home run and earning her first win on the mound.
“Alex is someone who we expect great things from,” Salcido said. “She’s going to be one of our huge contributing hitters, and she’s going to come up with a lot of big hits for us.”
Meanwhile, Lettire contributed to the win by becoming just the third player in program history to hit 30 career home runs. The other two are Kathryn Welch ’09 and Melissa Finley ’05.
“[Lettire] is someone who goes up to bat and is constantly trying to make little adjustments to get better and is always focused on trying to score a run,” Salcido said, “so none of us were aware it was her 30th.”
Lettire and sophomore outfielder Nicole Ontiveros’ bats were on fire all weekend, as the duo combined for 15 of the team’s 33 total hits and eight of its 18 runs scored.
Princeton once again struggled early in its second game against Maryland, falling behind 7-0 in the fourth inning. The Tigers persevered, though, staging a small comeback fueled by senior outfielder Kelsey Quist’s three-run home run before eventually losing 7-5. Kuhn once again had a strong outing, pitching two hitless innings in relief.
While the team wasn’t able to sustain all its momentum from the day’s first game, Salcido was extremely happy with Day Two’s results.
“The second day was great,” Salcido said. “What we want to see in a team on Day Two is that they have fight, that they respond to competition.”
The weekend ended with a tough 9-3 loss to Towson, as the opposing team’s hitters were relentless in the first four innings of play. After scoring three runs in the first two innings, the Tiger offense found itself unable to respond to the scoring onslaught.
Though Princeton may not have seen the outcomes it would have liked to in terms of score, the team came away with a positive outlook on the season.
“I think we’re right where we want to be heading into spring break, because our hitters are excited to see a lot of pitchers and everyone’s just excited to play a lot of games and be on the dirt,” Salcido added.
The softball team now heads out west for a challenging slate of 13 games in California over spring break.
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