As the softball team continued its struggles this weekend, managing just one win in a four-game home series against Penn, senior pitcher Jamie Lettire and senior outfielder Kelsey Quist continued their march through the program’s record books. The fourth-year players are both climbing toward career milestones in RBIs, extra-base hits and home runs.
“We could have played better than we did, and we expected great things that were there, but not consistently,” Lettire said of the team’s performance over the weekend. “I think we did certain things very well — and better — than in the past, so we met some expectations but not others.”
The weekend began on a rough note, as Princeton (11-29 overall, 5-11 Ivy League) dropped both games of Friday’s doubleheader. The Quakers (16-21, 10-6) jumped out to an early lead in both matches and never trailed in either, winning the first 8-5 and the second 11-7.
Penn established a 4-0 lead by the second inning of the first game on six hits and two Tiger errors, and never looked back. Princeton struggled defensively throughout the game, giving up a total of three unearned runs on five errors.
Princeton battled back to make it a 4-3 game by the fourth inning on two RBI singles and a solo home run by Quist. The slugger hit her eighth and ninth home runs of the season over the weekend, which were the 34th and 35th of her career.
The performance moved her to within two of Melissa Finley ’05 for the second-most in program history behind Lettire.
Penn never lost its momentum, though, and the Tigers were unable to keep pace in the final innings.
After her solid performances, Quist now ranks seventh in both career extra-base hits and RBIs, while Lettire ranks eighth and ninth in the two categories, respectively.
Still, the seniors have refused to take their focus off of winning games and said they remain largely uninterested with their place in the record books.
“I don’t think stats are important for us,” Lettire said.
The second game held a similar story, as the Quakers pounced on Lettire, who was pitching, for three runs by the third inning.
They then scored four in the top of both the fourth and sixth innings to grab the 11-7 victory.
Freshman Liza Kuhn pitched the last four innings in the circle with fellow freshman pitcher Alex Peyton still restricted due to stress fractures.
“It’s hard,” Lettire explained. “[Peyton] is a great pitcher, so she’d be an asset to us no matter what. We’ve worked around [her absence], but it’s definitely difficult.”
Four Tigers, including Lettire, contributed multi-hit games for a team total of 11 hits, and senior infielder Collette Abbott smacked a solo home run.
But Princeton never grabbed a tie or a lead in the loss.
The team’s second twin bill was more encouraging, as the Tigers fell 5-1 in the first game but battled back to take a strong 4-3 victory home in the second.
“We showed a lot more fight than we’ve shown in a while,” Lettire said of Saturday’s games. “We’ve always had the fight, but I think it doesn’t always come out.”
Saturday began well for the Tigers when Lettire scored an unearned run in the first inning of game one to establish a 1-0 lead, but Penn pitcher Chelsea Ott clamped down on the Princeton bats.
Ott limited the Tigers to just three hits for the remainder of the game.
Penn’s hitting turned on in the third inning, and the Quakers scored five runs on 10 hits after the early frames.
The Tigers ended the series on a high note, though, winning the final game.
Kuhn pitched a complete game for her fifth win of the season, and both Quist and sophomore third baseman Kelsey VandeBergh provided crucial run support, each collecting two hits and driving in a run.
The team begins its final weekend of play on Friday, when it will travel to Ithaca, N.Y., for a doubleheader against league-leader Cornell.
The Tigers will host the Big Red for another doubleheader on Sunday.
Princeton may not be playing for a title next weekend, but it is still motivated to make some kind of impact on the league’s final standings.
“We want to spoil; we kind of like that,” Lettire said. “We always have great games against Cornell, and we’re just going to go play our best and try to go out on a high note for everyone. We want to have something really great to take out of our softball careers for seniors and to take in [to] next year for the nongraduates.”
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