Baseball lights up scoreboard in sweep of Columbia

The Round of 16 in the NCAA basketball tournament. A 16th birthday. Sixteen runs for the baseball team in yesterday's nightcap. From almost every angle, 16 can be only one thing: sweet.

In a pair of doubleheaders this weekend, that sweet number led a laundry list of statistics as the Tigers (15-14 overall, 8-4 Ivy League) beat up on Columbia (3-27, 3-9) on its home field in New York City. Princeton swept the Lions, 13-1 and 9-8 Saturday and 7-1 and 16-6 yesterday.

It was a weekend when junior right fielder Max Krance went 4 for 5 with five RBI and a home run in one game — only to be overshadowed by junior first baseman Andrew Hanson's career performance yesterday. It was a weekend in which Princeton hammered the ball for 45 runs of offensive output while receiving two stellar performances on the mound. It was a weekend that can be adequately expressed only in numbers.

16: Tiger runs scored in the second game yesterday; Columbia's total run production for the entire weekend; the number of total bases covered by Hanson in the 16-6 blowout in which he went 6 for 6, hit for the cycle and blasted two out of the yard.

8: Lion batters fanned by sophomore righthander Chris Young en route to a complete game 13-1 win in the weekend-opener Saturday; the number of Ivy League wins owned by the Tigers after the weekend sweep.

7: Columbia batters sent to the bench by freshman righthander Ryan Quillian in yesterday's 7-1 contest, almost equaling Young's strikeout output in his own complete game win; runs knocked in by Hanson in the nightcap.

6: Hits in Hanson's record-breaking performance; Tiger players that cleared the fence in the four games; saves freshman closer David Boehle now has, one shy of tying the Tiger single-season record.

5: RBI Krance had in the close 9-8 win; records tied or broken by Hanson — the first baseman now owns Princeton's single game record for total bases and extra base hits (5) and holds a share of the record for home runs, RBI and hits in a game.

4: Wins on the season for senior righthander Jason Quintana, who pitched seven innings of the 16-6 rout; wins the Tigers earned this weekend; Princeton errors and unearned runs given up by sophomore righthander Tom Rowland as the Tigers barely squeaked past Columbia in the 9-8 nightcap Saturday.

3: Times senior catcher Buster Small was hit by Lion hurlers in the second game yesterday, a new single-game school record; Tiger homers in the 13-1 opener Saturday, one each from junior center fielder Mickey Martin and sophomores shortstop Pat Boran and third baseman Eric Voelker.

2: Home runs in consecutive at-bats for Hanson in his record-setting game; wins Young has earned in as many appearances this season.

1: Runs allowed by both Young and Quillian in their dominant performances on the mound; games by which Princeton leads Penn — which only won three of its four weekend games at Cornell — as the Tigers sit atop the Ivy League's Gehrig Division.