Baseball team snaps 11-year slump against Rutgers with 8-1 victory

The baseball team accomplished something on Tuesday afternoon that it hadn't done in 11 years — beat Rutgers.

By dominating the Scarlet Knights, 8-1, for the first time since May 15, 1991, the Tigers sent Rutgers to their first non-conference home defeat since 1997.

Senior Chris Higgins pitched six innings of three-hit ball for Princeton, surrendering just one run. The Oklahoma native struck out three Rutgers batters en route to his first victory of the season.

"The last two midweek games, Chris Higgins has pitched phenomenally," head coach Scott Bradley said. "He changes speeds and throws to spots and keeps hitters off balance."

With the loss of last year's power hitters, the Tigers have had to rely more on solid fundamentals. Princeton nearly perfected the small ball approach in the first inning, scoring three runs on two hits, three stolen bases and a hit batsman.

Senior shortstop Pat Boran led off by getting hit by a pitch. The captain proceeded to steal both second and third base before scoring on a single by freshman outfielder Adam Balkan.

Balkan then stole second and came home to score on sophomore right fielder Ryan Reich's double. Reich closed out the scoring by coming across on an error.

"You could see from the first inning today that the pitcher was a little slow to the plate," Bradley said. "It becomes very simple as to whether you can steal bases or not. You use a stopwatch and time the pitcher to see how quickly he gets the ball to home plate. He was rather slow and when our better base runners were on base, we felt we could take advantage of it."

In the bottom half of the inning, Higgins had a bit of a slow start. Like Rutgers starter David Santiago, Higgins hit the leadoff batter, Craig Badger. Badger then stole second and scored on a single two batters later.

That was all the damage the Scarlet Knights would do on the day, however, as Higgins limited them to two hits over the next five innings before being relieved by Thomas Pauly.

The sophomore has undoubtedly been Princeton's strongest pitcher thus far this season, pitching three scoreless innings for his sixth save of the year.

In 15.2 innings pitched this year, Pauly has allowed just one earned run for a 0.57 ERA with 19 strikeouts.

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"Not a whole lot of college baseball teams have somebody like Thomas Pauly to go to late in the ballgame," Bradley said. "His numbers are just unbelievable. He's our Mariano Rivera.

"We feel that if we can get a lead late in the game, we're going to win. It's a great feeling to have as a coach."

Facing one of the toughest pitching staffs on its schedule, Princeton got to Rutgers using quickness and smarts.

Santiago, who was 5-0 with a 3.15 ERA last season, gave up only five hits, but was hurt by two walks, a hit batsman and five stolen bases.

Boran, who had four of the five steals, scored three runs on the day, in true leadoff hitter form.

"I wasn't trying to do anything different," he said. "[Earlier in the year] Coach asked me where I wanted to hit in the lineup and I said I wanted to lead off because I really want to set the tone for our games.

"I think if I can get on base as the first batter of the game and maybe steal a base or two and score a run, it really helps out our team. It sets the tone with our confidence that [our offense] will be there the whole game."

Though the offense was clicking, the Tigers continued to have problems defensively. Princeton infielders committed four errors on the day.

"We're absolutely just shocked," Bradley said. "We thought that was going to be one of the strong points of the team this year. As a team, we're just in a rut."

But a win is a win, and one of this magnitude could produce some momentum.

"I feel like our team is starting to come into its own," Boran said. "We are different than the past two years, but that difference doesn't mean we can't be Ivy League champions. Rutgers is a Big East power and from the first pitch on, our team felt confident that we were going to win the game."

Now the Tigers want to show that confidence at Brown this weekend.