Senior Jay Mitchell had scored the game's first run. Senior Buster Small had hit his first home run since 1998. Senior Jason Quintana threw for six solid innings.
Baseball's Class of 2000 had done everything it could to put the team within reach of the Ivy League title.
.Then, in game two, the Tigers were up 4-3. A win would capture the championship which had eluded those seniors for three straight years.
In the top of the ninth, with the tying run in scoring position and the hottest hitter in the Ivy League at the plate, the game, the season and the title were in the hands of a freshman.
And closer David Boehle was up to the task, preserving the lead and finishing out Princeton's two-game sweep of Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series. The title and the automatic berth in the NCAA tournament were the Tigers' first since 1996.
"As I was walking out, I thought about the seniors and what they had been through," Boehle said. "I just wanted to bring the championship to them."
Closing time
Boehle entered the game in the top of the eighth inning with a 4-3 lead, one out and the tying run on second base. He got Big Green freshman Mike Mileusnic, who entered the game batting .383, to ground out to third base. He walked the next batter and then ran the count full against right fielder Yale Diekman. Boehle got out of the jam with a fastball that caught the outside corner.
The top of the ninth was eerily similar to game three of last year's championship series, in which Princeton entered the top of the final frame up two runs, only to watch the lead evaporate — and the championship go to Harvard once again.
Boehle walked the first batter, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Then, after a fly out to center field, Dartmouth's hopes rested on last week's Ivy League Player of the Week, catcher Mike Levy.
Boehle got ahead in the count 1-2, then won the battle and the title with a breaking ball.
"It's been my best pitch," Boehle said. "I just wanted to leave it up there for him right across the middle of the plate and see what he could do."
Levy struck out swinging, and the celebration was on. Boehle got his ninth save of the year, and Quintana, who threw the first six innings, got his sixth victory.
The loss went to Conor Brooks, the Big Green's ace and the No. 13-ranked pitcher in the country this season. His only previous loss had been to defending national champion Miami.
"Dartmouth is a great team, and Brooks is a tough cookie," head coach Scott Bradley said. "Our guys just stayed patient.
"We have a great class of seniors. They're great guys and great players, and they've been on the field for the last three years when we didn't get it done, so I really feel good for them."
Senior standouts
Quintana, who has struggled at points during the season, found out he was the game two starter in the eighth inning of game one.
"I had the same mentality as last year in terms of getting prepared for the game," Quintana said. "I really didn't believe I was going to start, but once you get in there you just let your stuff take over."
In fact, Bradley had the same thing in mind.
"Jason's arm is so resilient that I'd been thinking about using him in all three games this weekend if necessary," Bradley said. "If Chris Young's pitch count was high in the sixth inning and it looked like he wasn't going to finish the game, I was going to use Jason to close out game one."
Young, however, was doing just fine. The sophomore staff ace gave the Tigers a 1-0 series lead with a complete-game, seven-strikeout, four-hit, two-run performance — giving Princeton a 5-2 win in the opener.
Small had started the scoring with a home run in the second inning — the second of his career. The score was tied, 2-2, through seven innings, as the Tigers stranded 12 runners on base — twice failing to get runs with the bases loaded and one out.
Then sophomore shortstop Pat Boran put Princeton ahead for good in the eighth inning with an RBI single over a drawn-in infield to score junior second baseman Tim Phillips, who had reached on a single and advanced to third on an error by Dartmouth right fielder Daniel Becker. The Tigers would later add two insurance runs that Young did not need.
"I knew eventually we'd get some runs, especially the way we've been swinging the bat lately," Young said.
With the win, Young moved to 5-0 on the year and set the stage for the sweep.
"We've lost in all sorts of ways in the past three years," Small said. "Last year I was sitting in the dugout thinking of how I was going to celebrate. This year I sat on the bench and kept quiet until the last out was recorded."
The Tigers must wait until May 22 — the date on which the field for the NCAA tournament is announced — to see what the future holds.
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