Sometimes all it takes is a little inexperience. Two freshmen pitched masterful games to lead the baseball team to 11-2 and 1-0 wins over Dartmouth Sunday to rebound from 4-2 and 5-2 losses to Harvard the day before in two weekend doubleheaders at Clarke Field.
Scouts came out in droves to see the Saturday pitching matchups, with Harvard's game-two starter Ben Crockett taking center stage.
The first game pitted Justin Nywiede for the Crimson (5-11 overall, 2-0 Ivy check?) and junior Ryan Quillian for Princeton (10-15, 6-2). Quillian pitched a complete game but received no help from theoffense.
Nywiede matched Quillian's complete game effort and held his 4-2 lead after four innings, thanks in part to retiring 10 out of the last 11 Princeton batters.
Crockett took the mound in Harvard's 5-2 game two win against Princeton junior David Boehle. The Crimson put up two quick runs in the top of the first, and the Tigers had a tall task ahead —coming from behind against the Ivy League's top pitching prospect.
But they were up to the challenge. Freshman first-baseman Ryan Eldridge singled in sophomore outfielder Eric Fitzgerald, and sophomore catcher Tim Lahey hit a sacrifice fly to score freshman outfielder, Adam Balkan, tying the score.
Crockett relaxed after that, impressing the onlooking scouts by shutting out the Tigers for the next seven innings before being pulled in favor of closer Barry Wahlberg.
Boehle was pulled in the fifth after allowing three more Harvard runs. Juniors Mark Siano and Scott Hindman combined for five innings of perfect relief, but it was too late. The 5-2 Crimson lead would hold.
"We faced two veteran pitchers [Saturday]," Princeton coach Scott Bradley said, "two guys who pitch in the Cape Cod League in the summer, two guys who are very good, and we just didn't swing the bats."
In Sunday's opener, freshman Ross Ohlendorf gave up two runs and two hits in the first inning to the Big Green (8-10, 0-2) but settled in after that, allowing just one more hit and striking out seven in five innings en route to an 11-2 win.
The Tigers didn't let the 2-0 deficit discourage them. Consecutive doubles from sophomore outfielder Ryan Reich and Eldridge drove in three and put the Tigers ahead for good.
But the bats, which had been dormant in Saturday's losses to Harvard, were not done yet.
Princeton tacked on two more in the second before erupting for six runs in the third, sending twelve men to the plate, and building the 11-2 lead that would hold throughout the seven-inning contest.
Dartmouth starter Larry Fey, knocked out after two-plus innings pitched, surrendered nine runs — all earned — on eight hits.
Eldridge, who struck out three times against Harvard, went 3-3 with four runs batted in.
"It's something that our older guys have become very good at —losing tough games and coming back and winning," Bradley said.
Another freshman, Jason Vaughan, took the mound for the Tigers in their 1-0 game two win. And if not for Scott Shirrell, Vaughan would have achieved a pitcher's dream.
Shirrell lined a first-inning single, which at the time seemed harmless but ended up as the lone Dartmouth hit of the second game. Vaughan threw a one-hitter in 8.1 innings pitched and overcame four Princeton errors to get the win.
Eldridge was the offensive hero again, leading off the second with a single and scoring the only run of the game.
Sophomore Thomas Pauly relieved Vaughan to get the save. Dartmouth's John Velosky pitched a complete game, giving up six hits and striking out seven.
"We always say that the key is that at the end of the Ivy League season, if you can have 14 or 15 wins, you're going to have a chance," Bradley said.
Six and counting.
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