Softball: Tigers to do battle for second place in Ivy South Division

Continuing its slate of Ivy League South Division play, the softball team will face Penn (13-20 overall, 7-5 Ivy League) this weekend in a four-game series at Class of 1895 Field. Currently three games behind in the standings, the Tigers (10-26, 4-8) need a clean sweep this weekend to knock off the Quakers for second place in the South Division.

Princeton comes into this weekend’s matches riding its first three-win streak of the season after winning its series against Columbia 3-1 in convincing fashion.

“We really started clicking. Everyone was getting their hits together. We had a lot of home runs — a lot of people had the big hits and came through in tough times and scored RBI,” said freshman catcher Sarah Rounsifer, who contributed two home runs of her own in the series.

In the wake of their success, the team has been focusing on reinforcing the basics.

“We’ve done a lot of hitting, a lot of batting practice, working on advancing the runner, getting the bunts down. We’re going back to the simple stuff,” Rounsifer said.

The Tigers have been plagued by injuries recently. Sophomore outfielder Nicole Ontiveros may make an appearance this weekend after an injury that has kept her sidelined for several weeks, while freshman pitcher Alex Peyton is still on the mend after suffering multiple stress fractures. Though still cleared to hit, Peyton has not been able to help Princeton in the circle recently.

“She’s really upset she can’t pitch,” Rounsifer said. “She loves pitching and works really hard at it, but she’s been putting all her effort into hitting instead.”

Penn, meanwhile, comes into the series having struggled a bit recently. The Quakers have dropped six of their last seven games, with their only win coming in a four-game series against defending Ivy League champion Cornell.

Most recently, the Quakers fell 7-0 and 8-2 to Drexel in a twin bill on Wednesday afternoon.

Penn’s starting pitcher, Chelsea Ott, who sports a 3.31 ERA in 13 starts for the Quakers, will challenge the Tiger bats.

“[Ott] is more focused on movement than speed, so during batting practice our coaches have been throwing more spins than fast [pitches],” Rounsifer said of the team’s preparation.

Penn beat Princeton in three of four games last season, but the Tigers won’t be looking strictly for revenge.

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“I think the upperclassmen and the sophomores have done a really good job about putting things in the past and focusing on this year as a new year,” Rounsifer said.

In order to improve on its result from last year, however, Princeton will have to succeed in an area where it hasn’t yet this season: winning at home. The Tigers are currently winless in their first seven games at Class of 1895 Field, the longest home losing streak in program history.

“It’s been tough. I think the energy in the dugout was a big problem, but we’ve gotten it up,” Rounsifer said of the team’s struggles. “If everyone just keeps the mindset that we’re supposed to be there and we deserve to be on the field and we want the ball on that last out, then we’ll do well.”

Coming off its best weekend of the season against Columbia, the team will continue raising the bar for itself.

“We know what we can do since we played so well against Columbia,” Rousifer said. “Hopefully we’ll take four this week and it’ll be a new high point.”