Courtesy: Princeton Athletic CommunicationsThe Princeton softball team will head to Bethlehem, Pa., to continue an annual series against perennial Patriot League power Lehigh for a doubleheader Wednesday.
The Mountain Hawks rolled to an 11-0 start in the Patriot League this season before suffering their first league loss at Holy Cross Sunday. Lehigh (28-16) enters the midweek twinbill with a team ERA of 1.96, bolstered by freshman Emily Bausher (13-9, 1.63), a local product from New Egypt, N.J., and junior Rebecca Bliss (12-6, 2.31). Those two have thrown 251 of the team's 289 1/3 innings, with Ashley Quigley (3-1, 2.15) and Kelsey Lee (0-0, 1.56) rounding out the staff.
Lehigh also boasts two hitters with better than a .400 average at the plate. Senior Jennifer Colquhoun is hitting .439 with 13 of the team's 25 home runs as no other Mountain Hawk has more than three round-trippers. One of those with three homers is senior Julie Fernandez, who is hitting .438.
Princeton and Lehigh met almost annually from the start of the series in 1985 through 1996 and then did not meet until 2003. The teams have scheduled contests annually since then, though the 2009 meeting was rained out. Since the resumption in 2003, the series is even at 10 wins apiece.
Princeton enters Wednesday's doubleheader at 12-23 overall and 6-6 in the Ivy League. Four Tigers are hitting over .300, led by rookie Alyssa Schmidt and senior Nicole Ontiveros, both hitting .319. In the circle, Princeton's two juniors, Liza Kuhn (5-10, 3.69) and Alex Peyton (5-9, 3.84) combined to pitch the four games against Penn over the weekend, while freshman Meredith Brown (2-4, 4.03) has pitched in both of Princeton's non-league twinbills over the past two weeks.
After the Lehigh meeting, Princeton will resume Ivy League play for four games at Columbia over the weekend.
