Baseball splits pair with Brown

After getting to stay an extra day in the Providence, R.I., area, the baseball team earned a split with Brown and put itself in solid position heading into Gehrig division competition.

Junior catcher Casey Hildreth's monster day — 4 for 6 with two home runs, five RBI and four runs scored — gave the Tigers (11-13 overall, 4-4 Ivy League) a 1-1 record on the day against a team head coach Scott Bradley had described as "the best team in the league right now."

The Tigers got four RBI from Hildreth in an 11-7 victory in the first game of the doubleheader, but Brown (12-17, 4-4) rebounded to take the second game, 13-4.

Princeton got an early lead in the first inning of the first game off a three-run home run by Hildreth. Brown came storming back with three runs in the bottom half of the inning and added three more in the second to take a 6-3 lead.

Then it was the Tigers' turn to come back, taking a 7-6 lead with a run in the third and three more in the fourth on an RBI single by junior second baseman Tim Phillips, a sacrifice fly by junior first baseman Andrew Hanson, and an RBI single by Hildreth.

Brown second baseman Jeff Lawler, who went 6 for 8 with four doubles, two home runs and four RBI on the day, evened the score again with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth.

Clincher

Then in the top of the sixth, junior right fielder Max Krance sealed the win with a three-run pinch-hit home run of his own.

After giving up six runs in the first two innings, Princeton starter Ryan Quillian was solid the rest of the way, allowing only the run in the fifth. Quillian struck out eight in six innings of work and got the win, running his record to 2-1.

In the second game, Brown jumped out to a 5-0 lead on doubles by Lawler and left fielder John Cappello and a two-run home run by first baseman Shaun Gallagher.

The Tiger starter, senior Jason Quintana was tapped for nine runs — four earned — in 3.1 innings of work and suffered only his second loss of the season. Quintana did not walk a batter, but gave up ten hits.

In the first four innings Brown jumped out to an 11-1 lead, the Tigers' lone run coming on Hildreth's second home run in the second inning. Phillips added a solo shot in the top of the ninth, but the Brown bats were too much. Bryan Kirby worked six innings and got his first win of the season for the Bears.

Kirby allowed just two earned runs on seven hits in six innings.

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Princeton's 4-4 Ivy League record puts it in a tie with Penn, which was swept by Harvard yesterday. Now that inter-division competition is complete, Princeton's attention turns to its own Gehrig division, with two games against Columbia this weekend.