With Losing Streak at Seven, Softball Looks to Rebound against Princeton

After its Thursday doubleheader against Manhattan was cancelled, the Columbia softball team (12-20, 3-5 Ivy) heads into the most important stretch of its schedule beginning this weekend when it hosts the Princeton Tigers (11-19, 8-0 Ivy).

Over the next few weeks, Columbia will play Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Cornell. The four teams make up the southern division of the Ivy League and the results of this weekend’s games will go a long way toward deciding who will be crowned as the 2008 conference champion.

Since the Ivy League began playing softball in 1980, the Tigers have won 16 total conference titles, including four in the past six years. Last season, Columbia split its season series with Princeton 2-2. Three of the four games were decided by one run and the other went into extra innings.

In order to win, or even earn a split in the series, the Lions must play better than they did against Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend when they were swept.

Pitching will be key this weekend. Freshman Maggie Johnson was sharp in her first two Ivy League starts, throwing a pair of shutout wins over Brown and Yale. However, in her last two appearances, the right-hander has surrendered eight earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Sophomores Aimee Kemp and Deanna Minuto will be called upon to step up in this weekend’s series, and their coach is confident that they will be able to record outs.

“We like using Aimee and Deanna back to back” head coach Kayla Noonan said. “They both have very different styles that confuse opposing hitters.”

Offensively, the Lions must provide consistent run production throughout the series. Sporadic hitting plagued the team last weekend, particularly when it was shutout by Dartmouth 2-0. Outfielder Jackie Ecker and infielders Chantee Dempsey, Keli Leong, and Dani Pineda have been productive, but the Lions need more production out of their bats lower in the order.

Although they are coming off of a pair of losses against Rutgers last Thursday, the Tigers dominated in the first portion of their Ivy League schedule. Princeton outscored its opponents 45 to 17 in eight consecutive wins against the Ivy League’s northern division, sweeping Dartmouth and Harvard at home and rolling through Brown and Yale on the road.

The first pitch for each of the four games will begin at noon and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at the Columbia Softball Field, Baker Field Athletics Complex.