Softball: Princeton looks to stay in Ivy League race

However, by splitting their first four Ivy League games last weekend, Princeton stands third in the Ivy League South Division and tied for fourth overall heading into the weekend. The Tigers are coming off a split on Tuesday against Seton Hall.

“I am really impressed with the energy and fight that our team displays on the field,” senior centerfielder Nicole Ontiveros said. “We love setting the tone by scoring early on in the game and have shown that we are a very resilient group when our opponent is able to get a run or two on us. Our pitching has been especially sharp, and we were seeing the ball very well in our doubleheader against Seton Hall on Tuesday. Our bats are there; we just need to start stringing our hits together to score more runs and produce the outcome that we want. In addition, we need to learn from each other and make adjustments in the box more quickly, getting better and better every pitch and at bat.”

Ontiveros and freshman shortstop Alyssa Schmidt have batted first and second in the order for Princeton, respectively. They lead the Tigers in batting average, with Ontiveros at .337 and Schmidt at .314. Ontiveros also leads the team with 20 runs, six doubles and a .506 slugging percentage.

Junior pitcher and first baseman Alex Peyton has provided the power for Princeton’s offense, as well as a dependable presence in the pitching circle. Peyton leads the Tigers with five home runs and 19 RBIs, and she struck out nine and walked one in 14 innings last weekend to give her a 1-1 record thus far in the Ivy League season.

The Bulldogs are led by pitcher Chelsey Dunham, who made two appearances in the conference openers last weekend. She gave up 12 hits and four runs in 13 innings for a 2.15 ERA and a 1-1 record in league play. Yale is looking to get back on track after dropping a doubleheader to the University of Rhode Island on Wednesday, in which second baseman and leadoff hitter Jennifer Ong provided the only Bulldog hit in the second game of the series.

The Bears will ride their two-game winning streak into their Friday doubleheader with Cornell before facing Princeton on Saturday. A pair of Brown hitters, shortstop Stephanie Thompson and first baseman Kate Strobel, lit up the stat sheets last weekend.

In the Penn doubleheader, Thompson hit in all seven of her at bats, and she finished the weekend with ten hits in 13 at bats, along with five RBIs. She leads the league with a .544 batting average, .877 slugging percentage, .557 on base percentage and 50 total bases.

Strobel went seven for 11 last weekend with four runs scored, two doubles, two home runs and five RBIs. She ranks third in the league with a .385 average, second behind Thompson with a .769 slugging percentage and .484 on base percentage. She also leads the league with five home runs for the season.

“We are looking forward to a very successful weekend on the road against Yale and Brown,” Ontiveros said. “Since we dropped our last two games to Harvard, we are anxious to get back into league play and are hungry for another sweep. We have been practicing hitting certain types of pitches all week and were even able to see very similar pitching to what we will encounter this weekend in our midweek doubleheader against Seton Hall. The key for this weekend is to be patient and drive through the location of the ball, regardless of where it is pitched.”

These four games are the last league matchups before South Division play begins next weekend with four games in two days against Penn at Class of 1895 Field.

“We will do whatever it takes to win and can’t wait to come back to campus with a 4-0 record on the weekend,” Ontiveros said.