Softball: Princeton nearly perfect in 1st Ivy road weekend

Brown’s starting pitcher, Denise van der Goot, had just come back off the bench in order to pitch to the sophomore second baseman. This move was not accidental, as Van der Goot had struck out Roberts twice already earlier in the game and was looking to do it again. Roberts blocked this thought from her head and instead used it to her advantage because she knew exactly what pitch Van der Goot would throw.

“I was definitely expecting outside — the Brown pitcher had struck me out on the outside, so I knew that’s where it would be,” said Roberts, who is also a sports writer for The Daily Princetonian, in an email. “I just got a little closer to the plate and threw my hands through the outside location to find the right-center gap.”

Roberts’ clutch single drove in two runs to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead and ultimately the win in a back-and-forth game that featured three lead changes. Princeton held a comfortable 4-1 lead in the fifth inning, but Brown came back with four runs in the sixth to make things interesting. Earlier in the season, the Tigers would usually fail to score after their opponent’s late run surges, but this weekend the Tigers responded fairly well with late rallies of their own. This ability to tack on runs in the latter innings of the game contributed to the team’s success this weekend as the Tigers (9-20 overall, 5-3 Ivy League) went 3-1, sweeping their twinbill against Yale (7-21, 1-7) on Friday and splitting the one against Brown (6-16, 3-5) on Saturday.

In both of their games against Yale, the Tigers scored early on and never trailed, thanks to some late-inning runs as well. In the first game, Princeton got out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth and tacked on two more in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

The Tigers’ 6-4 victory in the second game wasn’t as easy, however. Junior pitcher Liza Kuhn tossed four scoreless innings while her teammates gave her a comfortable 3-0 lead.

Yale then came back with two doubles and a single to start off the bottom of the fifth, cutting the lead down to one. With those three consecutive hits and no outs, the Bulldogs were threatening, but Kuhn ended the rally with two of her career-high 13 strikeouts and a flyout.

Princeton then built on its lead with one run in the sixth and a two-run home run by senior third baseman Kelsey VandeBergh in the seventh to extend the lead to four. These extra runs late in the game proved crucial, as Yale added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh.

After their come-from-behind win over Brown in the first game, the Tigers lost a 2-1 nail-bitter that went 11 innings later in the day. The game was a classic pitcher’s duel between Kuhn and Brown’s Jessica Cherness. Neither team was able to score through nine straight innings despite each having plenty of base runners.

Princeton scored first in the top of the 10th on an RBI double by junior first baseman Alex Peyton. It looked like the Tigers might come away with the win and finish the weekend 4-0, but a two-out home run by Brown’s star slugger Stephanie Thompson spoiled this hope.

In the 11th, the Tigers could not score a run despite having a runner on third. Failing to do so was costly, because Brown won on another homer in the bottom of the inning.

Despite ending the weekend with a loss, Princeton has started to become more consistent with its hitting by capitalizing in big situations. The Tigers are starting to gel at the perfect time, as they will play key games against their divisional opponents in the coming weeks to decide the South Division title.