Seton Hall, Temple catch baseball relaxing before NCAA tourney

After securing a bid to the NCAA Tournament by defeating Dartmouth last Sunday — earning its second straight Ivy League title — the baseball team closed out its regular season with losses in two relatively meaningless games. The Tigers fell to Seton Hall on Wednesday, 11-7, and Temple on Tuesday, 11-6. The losses drop the Tigers' record just below .500, to 22-23.

Seton Hall blasted out of the gates with a five-run first inning. The Pirates' Kevin Leighton hit a grand slam in the first off sophomore righthander Ryan Quillian. Quillian gave up six runs, all of them earned, on six hits in two innings of work.

In the bottom half of the inning, Pat Boran scored on a four-base error. The Pirates' third baseman Todd Crawford fielded Boran's ground ball and threw it over the head of Leighton at first base and into right field. Meanwhile, Boran advanced to third and scampered home easily when no Seton Hall player covered home plate.

After the Pirates added another run in the top of the second inning, the Tigers scored four in the third to cut the lead to one. With the bases loaded, senior Mickey Martin's triple cleared them. Martin scored on senior Casey Hildreth's double. Hildreth was 3-for-5 with an RBI.

The Pirates, though, sealed the game with a four-run seventh inning off of junior Tom Rowland.

Rowland allowed five runs on five hits in 2.1 innings for the loss, which drops his record to 4-5 on the season. Sophomore David Boehle gave up no runs and allowed only one hit in two innings of work.

Against Temple on Tuesday, Princeton held on for an inning before the Owls exploded for eight runs in the second, effectively putting the game out of reach. Joe Lyall and Sam Sabolchick singled and were driven home by Mike Jenkins' single to center field. Then Mike Brown hit the Owls' fourth straight single, and Jenkins and Brown came home on Bob Filler's home run. Two batters later, Kyle Sweppenhiser did the same, ending a rough outing for Princeton's Brian Biegen.

Princeton answered with four runs in the top of the second. Jon Watterson and Andrew Hanson both had 2-RBI base hits in the inning. Reich singled to center field and Fitzgerald walked to set up Watterson's double. After Boran reached on an error, Hanson singled to drive in Watterson and Boran.

Temple answered with two more runs in the bottom of the third and added another in the fifth. Princeton could only add one run in each of the seventh and eighth innings.

Princeton now waits to see where its first-round NCAA tournament games will be held. Tournament locations will be announced May 14. Seeds wil be announced May 21 at 3 p.m. on ESPN.