ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell softball team will look to close strong as the final 10 days of the 2017 season will challenge the Big Red with eight more games, including six on the road, starting this Wednesday, April 26 when it visits Ithaca College. First pitch will be at 3:30 p.m. The Big Red then closes out Ivy League play with a home-and-home four-game series with Princeton starting on Saturday, April 29 at 12:30 p.m. in New Jersey. The Big Red will celebrate Senior Day on Sunday, April 30 at 12:30 p.m. at Niemand-Robison Field.
Four-year starters
Jessica Bigbie and
Michiko McGivney will be honored for their hard work and dedication to the Big Red program prior to game one. The duo has helped Cornell surpass its win total from a season ago both overall and in Ivy League play. Second-year head coach
Julie Farlow's team is hitting .291 as a unit, is just off the pace of the school record for fielding percentage at .965 and its 5.95 ERA is nearly a run and a half lower than in 2016.
Junior
Megan Murray is batting .339 with 40 hits, including nine doubles, and 23 runs scored. All of those marks lead the team. Sarah Murray (.315, 14 runs),
Olivia Lam (.314, four home runs, 18 RBI) and
Madeline Avery (.301, nine doubles, 13 RBI) are all hitting better than .300, while
Jessica Bigbie (.295, nine doubles, 15 RBI) and
Tori Togashi (.297, eight doubles, 14 runs) are both an extra hit from that marker. Freshman Bridgette Rooney is hitting .269 with an Ivy League-best nine home runs and is slugging .580 in an impressive rookie campaign.
In the circle, Lisa Nelson (5-5, 5.11 ERA in a team-high 86.1 innings),
Maddie Orcutt (4-8, 5.36 ERA in 62.2 innings) and Katie Lew (1-8, 6.39 ERA in 61.1 innings) have split a majority of the innings and have started 34 of 35 games.
Ithaca enters the weekend with a 23-7 after sweeping a doubleheader from Elmira at home and splitting at Utica on Sunday to move to 12-2, two games ahead of the field in the Empire 8 standings. The Bombers, under the dirextion of legendary coach Deb Pallozzi, were ranked fourth in the region and were receiving votes in the Division III national poll heading into last weekend.
The Bombers are hitting .311 as a team largely behind the quartet of Vanessa Brown (.402, 10 doubles, two home runs, 29 RBI), Alex Wright (.392, nine doubles, 24 RBI), Jessie Fleck (.389, 20 runs) and Allie Colleran (.359, seven doubles, five home runs, 19 RBI). Haley Congdon (11-2, 1.76 ERA) and Emily Holden (9-2, 2.04 ERA) have done a lion's share of the pitching. The team went 35-10 a year ago, winning the conference regular seasons and tournament titles en route to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Super Regionals.
The Big Red leads the all-time series with the Bombers 29-9, including 14-8 when heading over to South Hill. Cornell is 14-2 in its last 16 games at Kostrinsky Field, though the Bombers won the last meeting there in 2012, 4-3. The two teams last met in 2013 at Niemand-Robison Field with the Big Red winning 9-2 and 4-0 contests.
Cornell will then turn its attention to longtime rival Princeton, who has already clinched the Ivy League South Division title and is 21-16 overall (13-3 Ivy). The Tigers won three of four games this past weekend against Columbia to guarantee its spot in the Ivy League Championship Series and is 17-6 over its last 23 contests. Marissa Reynolds is a top contender for Ivy League Player of the Year and is hitting .456 with 14 doubles, six home runs and 20 RBI with a .566 on-base percentage and a sensational 1.4121 OBP. The Tigers are hitting .306 as a team, with Megan Donahey (.392, 27 runs) and Allison Harvey (.348, eight doubles, three home runs, 29 RBI) leading the offense.
The tandem of Erica Nori (8-2, 3.07 ERA) and Claire Klausner (9-5, 4.02 ERA) have done a majority of the pitching, with both Riley Wilkinson (2-3, 3.80 ERA) and Ashley LaGuardia (2-6, 8.44 ERA) also earning significant innings for fifth-year head coach Lisa Van Ackeren.
