Sports Shorts: Baseball, Softball Win Ivy League, Prepare for NCAAs

Baseball’s best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series against Yale featured its share of late-game heroics. The visiting Bulldogs rallied in the ninth inning for a 9-8 win in the series opener May 14. The Tigers battled back to even the series with a 6-2 victory in the first of two games May 15, setting up a tight duel in the finale.

Princeton’s game-three starting pitcher, Cameron Mingo ’16, allowed just one run in nine strong innings, but the Tigers were held scoreless until the bottom of the ninth. Danny Hoy ’16 opened the inning with a single, and the next three batters reached base (one walk and two players hit by pitches), sending Hoy home as the tying run. Then Danny Baer ’17, the runner on third base, saw an opening on a wild pitch and made a dash to the plate, scoring the winning run and giving Princeton its first Ivy title since 2011. The Tigers will receive their NCAA postseason destination on May 30.

Princeton softball, which won the Ivy League Championship Series two games to one over Harvard May 7-9, will travel to Harrisonburg, Va., and face host James Madison in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament May 20. Head coach Lisa Van Ackeren reached the tournament four times as a pitcher at Lehigh, but this is her first trip with the Tigers. “It’s difficult to describe how much fun it is,” she told PAW. “It’s an amazing experience that they’ve earned for themselves.”

Princeton’s rowing programs turned in several impressive performances May 15, led by the women’s open varsity eight, which upset No. 1 Brown to win the Ivy League Championships at Lake Carnegie. The men’s heavyweight varsity eight placed second to Yale at the Eastern Sprints in Worcester, Mass., and managed win the Rowe Cup for overall team points, thanks in part to wins in the third-varsity and fourth-varsity eights. The men’s lightweight varsity eight won bronze at Eastern Sprints.

Olivia Hompe ’17, the women’s lacrosse team’s top goal scorer, found the net with less than a second remaining to force overtime in the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament opener against Massachusetts in Ithaca, N.Y., May 13. But the Minutewomen replied with the first goal in overtime and advanced with a 13-12 victory.

Women’s tennis, the Ivy champion in three consecutive seasons, lost 4-1 to Georgia Tech in their NCAA Tournament opener in Columbia, S.C., May 13. Caroline Joyce ’17 picked up the Tigers’ lone singles point with a win in the No. 4 spot. Joyce led the team with a 25-8 singles record in 2015-16.