Courtesy: Princeton Athletic CommunicationsPRINCETON -- Four more home runs leapt off Princeton bats Monday afternoon at Class of 1895 Field, and the Tigers needed all four in a 6-5, 5-4 doubleheader sweep of Columbia to remain in the Ivy League race.
At 12-14 overall and 7-5 in the Ivy, Princeton stayed three games back of division-leading Cornell with eight games to play. Cornell will play four games at Columbia (12-24, 2-10) next weekend while Princeton will play four at Penn. The Tigers and Big Red will play four games in a home-and-home series the following weekend.
Princeton finished with 10 home runs in the four-game series, one fewer than the 11 Princeton popped in last season's four games against the Lions in Manhattan.
In the first game, all three home runs came from outside the usual triumverate of big hitters of Kathryn Welch, Kelsey Quist and Jamie Lettire. Freshman Nicole Ontiveros led off the bottom of the first with the first home run of her career, tying the game at 1-1 after Columbia pushed a run across in its first at-bat.
Ontiveros picked up another RBI in the second, as did Erin Miller, who went on to hit a home run two innings later. Princeton carried a 3-1 lead after two innings and used the homers by Miller, Collette Abbott and an RBI triple by Ontiveros that was almost an inside-the-park home run, all in the fourth inning, to untie the contest and give the Tigers a 6-3 lead after Columbia had closed the gap.
Columbia's Stephanie Yagi hit a two-run home run to pull the Lions within 6-5 in the sixth, but Lettire (5-5) stifled a would-be two-out rally in the seventh as Princeton held on for the win.
In the second game, Columbia scored first again on a third-inning RBI-double by Maggie Johnson, who also hit a home run three innings later off Princeton starter Michelle Tolfa (7-8).
Princeton answered Johnson's first RBI with a two-run single by Kristin Arguedas to go ahead 2-1, and back-to-back RBIs from Abbott and Welch put Princeton ahead 4-1 after four innings.
Johnson's home run cut it to 4-2, and Columbia was twice down to its last strike in the seventh before a ball off the bat of Dani Pineda ate up Arguedas at third base and allowed two runs, both of which had reached with two outs, to score and tie the game.
With the heart of its order coming to bat, Princeton didn't wait long to end it. After Welch and Quist were both retired, Lettire hammered a shot over the left-field fence to give Princeton the 5-4 win and series sweep. Quist had given Princeton a walk-off home run win in the series' first game Sunday afternoon.
Princeton will play a non-league doubleheader at Rutgers Thursday before returning to Ivy League play in Philadelphia this weekend.
