Live Stats: Friday at Princeton I Sunday at Cornell I 2011 Cornell Statistics I 2011 Roster I 2011 Schedule & Results
THE STORY LINE: The Cornell softball team enters its final weekend of Ivy League play with the goal of clinching the South Division title when it meets rival Princeton on Friday, April 29 at 2 p.m. in New Jersey, then at the Big Red's Niemand*Robison Field on Sunday, May 1 at 12:30 p.m. for Senior Day. COrnell enters the weekend needed to at least split the four-game series to guarantee itself its third straight division title and a sopt in the Ivy League playoff series next weeked.
SCOUTING THE BIG RED: The Big Red is off to a 24-18-1 start with a revamped lineup, as the two-time defending Ivy League champion leads the South Division with 9-5 record, three games ahead of second-place Penn. Senior Marissa Amiraian is batting .417 with 37 runs while spearheading the Big Red at the top of the lineup. Sophomore Kristen Towne is hitting .306 with a team-high six home runs and 26 RBI. Sophomore Erin Belles is hitting .318 with six home runs and 17 RBI, while freshman Christina Villalon (.302, 4 HR, 16 RBI) and Sam Creamer (.303) are each hitting at least .300. In the circle, two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Elizabeth Dalrymple is 16-6 with a 1.59 ERA and 179 strikeouts in 158.1 innings of work. Head coach Dick Blood has won 539 career games at Cornell and five Ivy League titles.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: Princeton is 14-24 overall and 5-11 in Ivy League play entering the weekend and needed a sweep of the four-game series against the Big Red to have any chance at winning the South Division. Sophomore Lizzy Pierce is Princeton's top hitter with her .330 batting average, four home runs and 22 RBI. Also hitting better than .300 is Kelsey VandeBergh at .305 with four homers. Alex Peyton is 5-12 with a team-best 3.46 ERA in the circle, while Michelle Tolfa is 3-6 with a 4.82 ERA. As a team, the Tigers are fielding at a .954 clip and have allowed opponents to hit .298. Princeton snapped a seven-game losing skid in its last contest, knocking off Columbia 5-2 on Tuesday in the finale of a four-game series with the Lions. Fourth-year head coach Trina Salcido directed the Tigers to an Ivy title and an NCAA tournament bid in her first year at the helm.
THE SERIES: Princeton leads the all-time series 23-19, though Cornell has dominated the series recently, winning eight of the last nine meetings between the teams, including five straight in Ithaca.
SENIOR WEEKEND: Prior to Sunday's doubleheader against the Tigers, Cornell will honor its three seniors for their contributions to the Big Red program. Marissa Amiraian, Elizabeth Dalrymple and Ali Tomlinson have been part of two Ivy League championship and NCAA tournament teams that have posted a cumulative 143-56-1 record heading into Friday and a 59-15 conference mark.
THIS PAST WEEK: The Cornell softball team kept its hot play going, rallying twice for a win in game two to complete a doubleheader sweep of Ithaca College on Wednesday afternoon at Kostrinsky Field. Cornell won game one 5-2, then took the nightcap 6-3 in eight innings. Freshman Jenny Edwards slammed a walk-off three run homer in the eighth inning after her big single in the seventh inning played a big role in sending the game into extra innings. She finished the game 2-for-5 with the three RBI. The trio of Jenna Stoller, Lauren Marx and Ali Tomlinson controlled the Bombers after the home team was able to scratch together two runs in the first inning. The second game theatrics were in stark contrast to game one, where senior Elizabeth Dalrymple scatted seven hits while striking out nine, controlling the game despite a narrow 5-2 final. Cornell had just six hits, but made nearly every scoring chance count. Freshman Lauren Bucolo was 2-for-2 with a home run and two RBI.
THE BIG MATCHUP: Cornell (1999, 2001, 2004, 2009, 2010) and Princeton (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008) have represented the Ivy League at the NCAA tournament in nine of the last 10 and 10 of the last 12 seasons, including each of the last three. Harvard won the other two seasons (2000, 2007).
HOME SWEET HOME: Cornell is 55-11 at home over the last four seasons, including an impressive 34-6 mark in league action at Niemand•Robison Field (includes a 2-0 mark at Ithaca College). The Big Red is 13-2 at home in its last 15 games, outscoring opponents 87-31 over that span.
IVY STANDARD: Since moving to a 20-game Ivy League slate in 2007, the Big Red has posted a 72-22 record in league play overall and a 36-6 record at home.
30 WINS A STAPLE: Cornell won 37 games a season ago, the fifth straight year and the 13th time in the last 14 years it has hit the 30-win plateau. The lone year it didn't reach that mark during that stretch was in 2005 when it went 29-17-1. To put that in perspective, no other team in the conference has an active streak of 30-win seasons among Ivy teams, and while Cornell has done it 13 times in the last 14 years, the other seven Ancient Eight schools have reached that mark just 11 times combined in the same span.
BIG WINNER: Head coach Dick Blood is in a chase to become the all-time winningest coach in Cornell athletics history for a single sport. He enters the weekend with 539 victories and needs two to tie legendary former baseball coach Ted Thoren (1962-890) at 541 during his 29-year career. He has posted a 539-241-2 mark at Cornell.
ON A TWO-YEAR TEAR: Senior outfielder Marissa Amiraian has picked right up where she left off a season ago, batting .417 with a team-high 60 hits, 37 runs scored and six triples while starting all 43 games. She is also perfect in 61 fielding chances and has posted a .485 on-base percentage. A year ago, Amiraian batted .400 and had one of the most memorable hits in school history when she hit a two-run homer to help Cornell to a 3-2 victory over Harvard in game three of the Ivy League championship season. Her .347 career batting average now ranks No. 8 all-time at Cornell, while her eight triples ranks fifth.
MOUND GAMES: Senior Elizabeth Dalrymple, the two-time reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, has posted a 56-17 record over her last three seasons. Dalrymple ranks fifth all-time at Cornell with 60 wins and holds the school's career strikeout mark (619). Dalrymple is also second in lowest opponent batting average (.221), fourth in lowest ERA (1.84) and saves (4) and is fifth in complete games (64) and third in shutouts (16).
HIT TOWNE: Sophomore Kristen Towne, a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection as a utility player as a freshman in 2010, is having another strong season in her second year. She is batting .306 with seven doubles, a triple and six home runs with 26 RBI in 42 contests. She is slugging .524 with a .383 on-base percentage and has committed just one error in 248 fielding chances. Towne is coming off a rookie season in which she batted .362 with 10 doubles, eight home runs and 31 RBI. She batted .455 with a .782 slugging percentage in Ivy League play.
ROOKIES ON DISPLAY: Several freshmen have played key roles in the 2011 lineup. At second base, Jenny Edwards is hitting .256 with four home runs and 24 RBI, while outfielder Christina Villalon is hitting .302 with four home runs and 16 RBI. Outfielder Sam Creamer (.303) and infielder Lauren Bucolo (.225, 2 HR, 14 RBI) have also played key roles. Other rookies earning significant time are infielder Sarah McCormack and outfielder J.J. Briggs, who have combined to play in 55 games.
SMART PLAY: Senior Ali Tomlinson, despite battling through numerous injuries in her last two seasons, is back on track in the pitching circle. Tomlinson is 7-6 with a 3.53 ERA and a pair of complete games so far in 2011. She ranks second on the team to Elizabeth Dalrymple in strikeouts (48), innings pitched (77.1), ERA and games started (8) and appeared in (18). Tomlinson was named to the Capital One Academic All-District team in 2010 after recording a 3.45 grade point average in communication.
EDWARDS NAMED IVY LEAGUE ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Cornell freshman second baseman Jenny Edwards has been named the Ivy League Softball Rookie of the Week it was announced today by the league office. Edwards helped the Big Red to doubleheader sweeps of Patriot League leader Colgate and Ivy South Division contender Penn this past week. Edwards found her stroke last week, hitting .417 with two doubles and two home runs in four contests. She slugged an impressive 1.083 and posted a .462 on-base percentage with five runs scored and four RBI while leading Cornell to a 4-0 record on the week. Edwards was 2-for-6 with a double and two runs scored in a doubleheader against Patriot League leader Colgate during a midweek series, then exploded in the weekend doubleheader against Penn. Entering the weekend with one career home run, Edwards blasted a pair of two-run shots in the first game against the Quakers as part of a 2-for-3, three runs scored, four RBI day. She also walked once. In the nightcap, Edwards was 1-for-3 with a double. The rookie second baseman also was flawless in four fielding chances.
NEXT UP: Cornell is scheduled to close out the regular season on Wednesday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. when Binghamton visits Niemand*Robison Field.
