Softball: Quakers take 3 of 4 from hosts

The first game of the series on Saturday featured six shutout innings and 12 straight batters retired in the third through sixth innings by junior pitcher Liza Kuhn. However, the Tigers were not able to hold off the Quakers any longer. After a scoreless first six innings on each side, the hosts gave up three homers in a four-batter span in the top of the seventh inning and fell 8-1.

Early in the second game, it looked like Penn was going to sweep the day after the Quakers went ahead 2-0 in the third. However, Princeton put up its first run in the bottom of the third on a single by senior outfielder Nicole Ontiveros, who leads the team with a .319 batting average and tacked on two more in the fourth inning.

The Tigers held on for a 4-3 victory, a welcome result after a disappointing end to the first game of the doubleheader.

“I think the fact that Penn had come strong in that last inning, we wanted to come back and prove to them that we had some fight, just try to jump on them and score consistently ... which we did a lot better in [the second] game,” senior third baseman Kelsey VandeBergh said.

Junior Alex Peyton got the win for the Tigers after a complete-game performance, making her 5-8 on the season.

The Tigers scored first on Sunday for the first time in the series, but Penn quickly pulled even in the top of the second. Penn added another two runs in the top of the third, and from there Princeton fell 4-1.

Penn took a quick lead in Sunday’s finale, scoring three runs on a homer in the top of the first. The Tigers were unable to overcome the deficit, going hitless from the second through sixth innings and fell 5-1 in the final game of the series.

Sophomore catcher Maddie Cousens, who had two of Princeton’s eight hits in Saturday’s win, commended the pitchers for their persistence.

“The pitchers were definitely working with the zone they had,” Cousens said. “The umpires were keeping them really tight, and they were really strong about just sticking with it and being very sure to the outside corner.”

Princeton remains third in ERA in conference play even after its toughest weekend to date.

“It’s really hard to face batters more than 15 times, what they faced this weekend, so they tried to make the ball have a new look on it every time and they did that really well,” Cousens added.

Despite not capitalizing on many of their offensive opportunities, the Tigers have shown that their pitching can keep them in even the toughest of games. This will certainly be an integral part of their strategy in the upcoming weekends, in which they will play important series against Ivy League opponents Columbia and Cornell.