March 29, 2023
Rider Broncs (6-14) vs. Princeton Tigers (9-13)
Time: 3 p.m.  
Location: Lawrenceville, NJ – Herb & Joan Young Field
Live Stats – GoBroncs.com
Twitter – Twitter.com/SoftballRider

What You Need To Know
- Rider hosts Princeton in its home opening doubleheader Wednesday afternoon.
- Freshman Jadeyn Merrill has led the Rider offense thus far, hitting .314 with two home runs and 11 RBI's – all team bests.
- Jessie Niegocki and Olivia Burroughs have added offensive punch, hitting .288 and .286, respectively. Niegocki has scored a team-high 11 runs out of the leadoff spot, while Burroughs has scored 10 times and contributed a team-best six doubles.
- The Broncs feature a balanced pitching staff, with three different hurlers making either nine or 10 appearances and between six and eight starts. Kathryn Schmierer leads the group with a 2.95 ERA and four complete games, while Fallyn Stoeckel has a 3.36 ERA. Niegocki has chipped in with a 3.53 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 41.2 innings pitched.
- Rider's wins this season have come over Wagner (2), Lamar, Cleveland State, North Dakota and Delaware.
- The twinbill is Rider's second of the season after taking a split this past Wednesday at Delaware.
- Princeton (9-13) has gotten off to a fast start in Ivy League play, winning five of its first six conference games over the last week and a half. The Tigers swept Yale at home before taking two of three at Brown.
- Serena Starts leads Princeton with a .347 average, 14 runs and six stolen bases in seven tries. Allison Ha (2 HR) and Julia Dumais (5 2B, HR, 10 RBI) also give the Tigers offensive punch.
- Princeton has four pitchers with ERA's in the three's, with Alexis Laudenslager leading the way with a 3.05 ERA with 78 strikeouts in 59.2 innings pitched.
- The Broncs were picked seventh in the MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll. In Rider Head Coach Davon Ortega's tenure, the Broncs have never finished below their projected spot in the standings, but finished higher than the league's coaches expectations in three of four seasons in which the year was completed (no conference games were completed in 2020 due to COVID-19). Most recently, the league's coaches tabbed the Broncs eighth last year, with Rider finishing fourth, the largest disparity between projection and results in Ortega's time in Lawrenceville.
- Niegocki was selected to the Preseason All-MAAC Team. She was named to Extra Innings Softball's Top Two-Way Players List after breaking out in her sophomore campaign, hitting .359 with 34 runs scored to go along with six doubles, 16 RBI's and a team-leading .419 on-base percentage. She was also arguably the Broncs' best pitcher, posting a team-leading 2.09 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 100.1 innings pitched. She pitched the first Rider no-hitter in nearly 10 years on April 2 against Fairfield and had three complete-game shutouts on the year. Her 66 hits ranked 68th in the nation last year, while her 8.9 strikeouts per seven innings pitched ranked 41st nationally.
- Niegocki collected the 100^th hit of her Rider career on March 10 against Cleveland State.
- The Broncs are led by sixth-year Head Coach Davon Ortega. Rider's 28 wins in 2022 eclipsed the most in Ortega's five-year tenure at Rider by an 11-win margin (17, 2018, 2021). Following a 15-year absence, Ortega has led the Broncs to back-to-back MAAC Tournament appearances.
- Rider's 28 wins in 2022 were the team's most since 2004, when the Broncs matched the program record of 35 wins (1994).
- Rider finished 2022 with a .500 winning percentage or better in league play for the first time since 2010 (8-8). The Broncs finished above .500 in league play for the first time since 2006 (10-6) and just the fourth time in the program's 26 years in the MAAC.
- Rider led the MAAC in batting average (.294, 45^th in Division I) and earned run average (2.45, 37^th in D1) in 2022.
- The Broncs returned six of nine starters to the line-up and their three top pitchers from a year ago.