Impressive sweep leaves women’s softball on top

This weekend, in an incredible showing, the Princeton women’s softball team completed a four-game sweep over Columbia to move to the top of the Ivy League South Division standings, winning 3-0, 14-5, 3-2 and 2-0. The Tigers (14-18 overall, 6-4 Ivy League) are now tied with Penn (7-5 Ivy League) for first place in the division.

Saturday opened with junior pitcher Shanna Christian pitching a shutout in the first game of the day, her second shutout of the conference season, holding Columbia to just two hits and allowing just one runner to reach scoring position. After a close call in the first inning, which saw two Tiger errors, Christian only gave up two singles in the third and fifth innings. The Tigers scored their three runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning after a double from junior catcher Skye Jerpbak sent sophomore catcher Kelsey Smith, sophomore outfielder Marissa Reynolds and junior outfielder Danielle Allen home. Christian gave up no walks and struck out eight batters in the first game to help bring the Tigers to victory.

In the second game, the Tigers won 14-5 after six innings with the run-rule in effect. The game opened with Columbia getting on the board with two runs off of a home run from first baseman/outfielder Shelby Unger in the top of the first inning. The Tigers caught up quickly, scoring runs in both the bottom of the first and second innings before the Lions pulled away again, scoring two more runs in the top of the third inning on a pair of home runs. The Tigers then pulled out three straight hits in the bottom of the third, with senior infielder Alyssa Schmidt, junior first baseman Emily Viggers and Smith loading the bases before a Reynolds grand slam gave the Tigers the push they needed to pull ahead for good, putting the Tigers up 6-4. Three more runs in the bottom of the fourth put the Tigers up even more before five hits in the sixth inning followed by a three-run Jerpbak home run put the Tigers in run-rule territory. The game marked the first this season in which the Tigers had more than one home run and saw the Tigers with 18 hits in the game, a season high.

Sunday saw the Tigers’ momentum of the previous day carry over as they continued to sweep Columbia. Columbia led the Tigers for most of the first game, scoring in the top of the second and fourth innings to put them up 2-0 with senior pitcher Meredith Brown on the mound for just over three innings before freshman Ashley LaGuardia took to the field. LaGuardia only gave way for two Columbia batters on errors in the seventh inning as the Tigers rallied, getting on the board in the bottom of the fifth inning. A double from senior first/third baseman Sarah McGowan put her on base before a single from senior infielder/outfielder Rachel Rendina allowed the Tigers to score. A pair of singles in the sixth inning allowed the Tigers another run after the second single was misplayed by the Lions, and the Tigers scored again on a sacrifice fly, putting the Tigers up 3-2 and giving them the win.

In the second game, Christian pitched another incredible shutout, not letting a single Columbia batter past second base. Christian allowed only six hits, striking out seven batters without any walks. The Tigers had trouble getting on the board at first, but notched two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning after three singles and a sacrifice fly from Rendina gave the Tigers the 2-0 lead they needed to win the game.

Christian’s incredible performance over the weekend earned her Ivy League Pitcher of the week honors, pitching a total of 14 shutout innings and allowing a total of eight hits and no walks while striking out a total of fifteen batters. This is the second Ivy League Pitcher of the week honor the Tigers have garnered this season, with the first going to rookie LaGuardia on March 3.

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday, April 15to face off against Lehigh (26-6) in a doubleheader, with Head Coach Lisa Van Ackeren coaching against her alma mater. The Mountain Hawks have won the last four games against the Tigers, sweeping doubleheaders in 2012 and 2013. Lehigh has a team ERA of 1.75, the eighth-best in Division I softball, with a batting average of .316. Turning to Princeton, Schmidt leads the Tigers with a .300 batting average with Reynolds following close behind at .296. Christian has a 2.62 ERA over 56 innings, followed by Brown and LaGuardia, who both have ERAs of 3.42.