Softball looks to increase aggessiveness at the plate

After two home-opening losses to a mediocre Rider squad a week ago, softball head coach Cindy Cohen realized that the team was not headed in the right direction. Plagued by offensive and defensive woes, especially at the plate, the Tigers did not look like a squad ready to challenge for the Ivy League title.

"Sometimes [this season], we come out really intense and excited to play and sometimes we just come out flat," senior No. 1 pitcher Sarah Peterman said. "We know that we need to maintain that intensity and focus if we want to win."

In order to instill that focus in the team, Cohen went back to the basics, emphasizing the discipline and aggressiveness at the plate necessary to be a good and consistent hitter.

"If you have good defense and are consistently hitting the ball hard every time at bat, you'll be ahead or close by the end of the game," Cohen said.

"If not, you're going to lose."

Against Rider, Princeton (8-14) had its fair share of weak ground outs, and lifeless pop-outs and foul-outs to the infield — all signs of a lack of consistent aggressiveness at the plate. This lack of consistency was made more apparent by the team's inability to score early in the game.

While the Tigers have been able to pull out a number of come-from-behind victories, they have, more often than not, been unable to recover from early-inning offensive slumps.

"We have a tendency to wait too long to recognize the need to score, which has more to do with maintaining a high level of concentration and intensity throughout than any sort of physical problem with the team," Peterman said.

This past week in practice, Cohen tried to rectify the consistency problem by conditioning the players to hit the ball hard every time in the batting cage. Practices took on the tougher atmosphere that Cohen promised: Every time the aggressiveness at the plate faltered, the player had to endure "some type of punishment," according to Cohen.

"We've been stressing discipline at the plate and focusing on game-type situations [at the plate] and what to do in those situations," junior outfielder Lori Volker said. "That's what we really need to strive for [in order to be consistent and win]."

With a renewed offensive discipline, the Tigers were able to rebound this past weekend by putting together three solid victories at the Princeton Invitational, beating Temple, Boston College and Fairfield. The lone loss came in the championship game against the Eagles.

While the first day saw a pair of low-scoring games with great pitching by both Peterman and sophomore Brie Galicinao, the Tigers took advantage of the necessary scoring opportunities. Against Fairfield, Princeton was first to strike, jumping out to an ultimately insurmountable 3-0 lead. The main hit was provided by a two-out, two-run double by sophomore Sarah Jane White, the team's leading hitter at .314.

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The next day in the championship game against Boston College, the Tigers showed their increased tenacity by answering all of the Eagles' runs with some of their own, not allowing themselves to fall behind in the first few innings. After allowing one run in the first, Princeton answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning behind another two-out, two-run double by Galicinao. Falling behind 3-2 in the third, the Tigers responded immediately to tie the game at three in the bottom of the third.

Princeton, ultimately, was unsuccessful to overcome the 6-3 deficit in its final at-bat, scoring only one run in the seventh. But it wasn't due to a lack of focus.

"We hit the ball harder [against Boston College] but our scores just didn't show it," said Cohen, who cited strong defense in the infield and outfield for preventing any sort of rally from starting. "No doubt, we're showing signs of progress."

With their first Ivy League game against Brown fast approaching, the Tigers know that consistent aggressiveness and concentration is going to be key to Ivy success.

"We battle every game. We don't give up until the end. For a young team, that is a good sign," Cohen said, "Are we there yet? No . . . but we're getting there."