A Softball Championship, And A Great Reward

TigerBlog Jr. and a bunch of his friends have season tickets to the UFL's DC Defenders.

The team had a home game yesterday, which led to this conversation between father and son:

TigerBlog: Are you going home for Mothers' Day?
TBJ: No, the Defenders have a game.
TB: But it's Mothers' Day.
TBJ: I invited Mom to come down and go to the game.

If you're keeping score, she declined that invite.

Anyway, hopefully all the mothers out there had a perfect day. You know who had a great Mothers' Day? 

That would have to be Princeton head softball coach Lisa Van Ackeren.

The mother of two, Van Ackeren's extended family won the Ivy League softball tournament Saturday, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The draw was announced last night, and the Tigers will head to Lafayette, Louisiana, for the opening double-elimination round.

Princeton will play the host Louisiana-Lafayette Friday at 5:30 Eastern, with Baylor and Ole Miss as the other two teams in the regional. 

Is Lafayette a fun place to be? TigerBlog would be a good person to ask. He was there in 2016 — eight years ago? — for the NCAA baseball regional with the Tigers, and this is what he wrote:

TigerBlog had never been to an NCAA baseball regional before, and he was looking forward to going with Princeton. As he said last week, when the draw was announced, he was really hoping for Mississippi State or Ole Miss, because he thought those would be the best regionals for the overall experience. He was wrong. Or if he wasn't wrong, then he can't imagine what goes on at those two places, because how can anything top Lafayette? From the time TigerBlog got there Wednesday until he left early yesterday morning, he was amazed by the city - and its people.

Also, if there was anyone happier to see Princeton's name pop up in the Lafayette regional than the team members themselves, it was Princeton alum and TB's longtime friend Ian Auzenne, who lives there, works there and love it there, all while staying dialed in to what goes on with Princeton Athletics.

To earn its trip to Lafayette, Princeton had to do it the hard way. Well, the harder way of the easy way, or something like that.

Princeton reached the tournament final by defeating Dartmouth Wednesday and Harvard Thursday. Dartmouth, who eliminated Yale Thursday, was itself eliminated by Harvard Friday, which set up Saturday's final round.

To win the title, Harvard needed to beat Princeton twice, since it was a double-elimination tournament. The Crimson took Game 1 Saturday 6-1, and that set up the winner-take-all final game of the event. 

And, as TigerBlog has already said, Princeton came away with the win. The details? The final was 1-0, as Princeton scratched out a run in the second inning on a walk by Allison Ha, a bunt single by Grace Jackson, a Sophia Marsalo ground out that moved the runners up and base and then an RBI ground ball by Cate Bade. 

That was all Princeton would get, and that was all Princeton would need.

Cassidy Shaw started the game and went six innings, allowing no runs on four hits without a walk. Her toughest spot came in the third, when Harvard had runners on second and third with one out and Ivy Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year Sophie Sun at the plate. Shaw, though, got out of it with a strikeout and pop out.

Brielle Wright pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for the save. She got all three of her outs on ground balls, and the save was her ninth of the season, a Princeton and Ivy League record. She also now has 10 career saves, tying the Ivy League career record despite being only a sophomore. 

As for Shaw, she's a freshman with an 11-7 record in 28 appearances, 25 of them starts. Another freshman, Karis Ford, was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after going 5 for 10 with a home run and  four RBIs. 

All three of them, by the way, are from California. 

And now they all head to Louisiana. Here's something else TB wrote after his trip there: 

During his time there, TigerBlog ate crawfish, frogs legs, alligator, catfish, gumbo, jambalaya, pastalaya, beans of all kinds and four po boys, three of which were shrimp.

Playing in the NCAA tournament anywhere is great. Playing where the Tigers are going is even more special.