Cornell defeats softball for first time ever; Tigers sweep Quakers

Bouncing back from a disappointing pair of losses to Cornell Friday, the softball team swept Penn Saturday afternoon in its opening weekend of Ivy League play.

The sweep of Penn was particularly important to the team in light of the two losses to Cornell the previous day. The Tigers (18-12 overall, 2-2 Ivy League) could not afford to drop to 0-4 in the Ivy League.

"We came out with a different confidence level against Penn" freshman catcher Devon Keefe said. "We knew we had to win."

The Tigers got their weekend off to a slow start as the team was swept by the Big Red, 4-3 and 2-1, in Ithaca, N.Y. The two losses marked the first time Cornell has ever defeated Princeton.

On the mound

The Big Red received two complete-game performances from pitchers Julie Westbrook and Nicole Zitarelli. Westbrook leads the Ivy League in wins and is third in earned run average, behind teammate Zitarelli and the Tigers' ace Lynn Miller, who leads the league in ERA.

Despite Miller's usual dominance, Cornell managed to come out on top. The Big Red's Charlotte Brombach hit the game-winning home run off Miller to lead off the sixth inning, dropping Miller to 9-6 on the season.

In the second half of the doubleheader, Cornell jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. That proved to be enough for Zitarelli, as she limited the Tigers to just one run on a sacrifice fly by junior first baseman Wendy Herm that scored freshman third baseman Lauren Poniatowski.

Shutouts

Princeton took out its revenge for the losses to Cornell by sweeping Penn Saturday in Philadelphia, 2-0 and 6-0. The Tigers were led by standout pitching from sophomore righthander Sarah Peterman and senior right-hander Alyssa Smith who each threw complete-game shutouts.

In game one, Peterman, who was injured last season, had little trouble with Quakers. She went the distance and retired the last 12 batter she faced to record her second shutout of the season.

No brooding

"I didn't know a lot about them," Peterman said. "Devon called a really smart game. We felt really good and were able to put (Friday) behind us."

Offensively, the Tigers were paced by Poniatowski and sophomore second baseman Kamilah Briscoe. Poniatowski's RBI double to left in the first inning scored senior designated hitter Andrea Alary. Briscoe's RBI double plated Alary and put Princeton up 2-0 to close out the scoring.

As dominant as Peterman was in the first game, Smith was even better. After giving up a first inning single, Smith proceeded to retire 16 straight batters en route to the Tigers' 6-0 victory. Freshman outfielder Lori Volker's RBI single put the Tigers up, 1-0. Princeton went on to score five insurance runs to help Smith improve her record to 4-3 on the season.