Baseball gets marathon win over Rider

It was the perfect day for a baseball game. The sun was shining, the skies were blue, spring peaked out from winter's shroud. The temperature was cool enough for the short-sleeve uniforms but warm enough to take the sting out of the hits. It was a perfect day. For everyone except the pitchers.

The baseball team barely edged out Rider (9-15) yesterday in an all-out slugfest that saw the teams combine for 40 hits and 33 runs. Princeton (7-15) scored in every inning but one. Rider scored 11 unearned runs. The game saw 11 errors. And when the dust settled and the sun went down, Princeton stood on top, 17-16.

The game started innocuously, as the first inning saw no hits and only one walk. Then the bats exploded.

Starting in the second inning, freshman righthander Thomas Pauly found himself subject to shoddy defensive play. After allowing a leadoff double to Rider designated hitter Rich Brooks — who went 5-for-5 on the day — Pauly suffered the first setback when junior shortstop Pat Boran had his first error of the game. Two outs later, senior center fielder Mickey Martin had an error to turn a single into a double. And then Martin had another error on the next batter. And the floodgates opened.

Pauly's only earned run in 2.2 innings of work was the first, but Rider dropped nine runs on the rookie, en route to a 10-2 lead after three innings. Then it was Princeton's turn in the batting cage.

After notching three runs in the fourth inning, the Tigers unleashed on Bronc reliever Carl Loadenthal. Princeton sent twelve batters to the plate in the fifth inning, scoring eight runs and forcing Loadenthal to leave after gaining only one out in the inning. By the time freshman catcher Tim Lahey struck out to end the inning, the Tigers had claimed a 13-12 lead.

Princeton maintained that lead for the remainder of the game, but Rider attempted a comeback in the final inning of the day. After ending a three-run Bronc comeback by getting two outs in the eighth, junior righthander Bill Broome took the mound in the ninth with a two-run lead.

Broome struck out the first batter of the inning, but then allowed a single to Rider shortstop Tim Superka. Broome got the next batter to fly out to right field, but served up a double to Brooks for his fifth hit of the day, scoring a run.

With the tying run on second and two outs, Rider's Dante Paolillo pinch hit for hitless catcher David Deane. With the game on the line, Broome got Paolillo to ground out to second base, ending an already epic game.