If the baseball season were a football game, winning three of four games last weekend against Columbia — who was tied with the Tigersfor the league lead — was the tiebreaking touchdown. Now, with only Penn and Cornell remaining for Ivy League play, time's running out on the clock and Princeton, with a solid hold on the Gehrig League title, only needs to maintain its lead. This weekend against League cellar-dwellar Penn is like kicking the extra point — no flair, no miracle needed, it should be a gimmie. All Princeton has to do is take care of the ball.
On paper it sounds obvious. But a recent fumble on the part of the baseball team — last night's matchup with Monmouth, which ended with a 11-2 Tiger loss — wastes no breath in revealing that even the current Goliath of Ivy League baseball can be vulnerable. And no one can predict when a last minute interception could turn the tides and allow the David of the Gehrig League to capitalize on the opportunity, leaving a befuddled Tiger team wondering what happened.
But don't bet on it.
With a strong pitching lineup that has shown itself to be both deeper and more consistent than expected and hitting that has proven to be as timely as it is impressive, it doesn't look like Princeton plans to make a habit out of losing.
"We've come together so well as a team that we really just need to have each individual focus on what he needs to get done," sophomore pitcher Ryan Quillian said.
Quillian's recent performance —which includes a shutout against Columbia (his second of the year) and three consecutive wins — earned him Co-Pitcher of the Week status for the Ivy League. Quillian also leads the team in strikeouts, with 37.
A relatively easy early season schedule left Penn with an impressive 16-9 record compared to the Tigers' overall 14-18 mark. But in league play Penn is only 3-5 while the league-leading Tigers are sitting at 8-4. The Quakers have shown their propensity within the league not only to be beaten, but to be beaten badly, as demonstrated by a 16-1 slaughtering by Dartmouth and a 16-0 massacre executed by Brown.
"Our focus this weekend is the same as always — to win the series. A successful weekend is to win three of four. It makes no difference in our approach that Penn is in last place," head coach Scott Bradley said. "They are a very dangerous team with very good pitching. We need to swing the bats well in order to have a good weekend."
Against Monmouth yesterday, a chink in the armor of the pitching staff resulted in a devastating 17 hits and an insurmountable lead for the Hawks. Two home runs in the first inning gave the Hawks four runs. In the second inning, Monmouth found a different way to do the same thing, again bringing four batters around the bases. Three more runs came in during the third inning before Monmouth's batting frenzy was put to an end. Princeton went through five pitchers throughout the course of the game.
The bright spot of the game was the performance of senior right fielder Max Krance, who hit his first home run of the year to kick off the sixth inning and give the Tigers their second and final run of the game.
Coach Bradley continues to be enthusiastic about the pitching staff.
"Ryan Quillian has pitched well all year, David Boehle is coming off his best outing of the year and Tom Rowland has regained his arm strength and gets better each time out."
These Tigers are clearly concerned about taking care of the ball, and Quillian at least knows exactly what he plans to do with it.
"I've got to keep pitching the way I've been pitching, I've got good stuff on my fastball," Quillian said.
His chance to show it will come at noon Saturday when the team will begin play in the first of two doubleheaders in Philadelphia.
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