Rider snaps baseball's six-game winning streak in ugly weather

Senior pitcher Bill Broome was facing a chance to send the game into extra innings for his team. He had managed to fight his way out of an opening hit double as his infield took care of the first two runners in a position to score. He had two outs, with only one man on second. He hurled the pitch — and Rider catcher Rich Brooks sent the ball to right field, bringing the game to an end as his teammate reached home on his single.

Amidst bad weather, the baseball team dropped a game to Rider in the bottom of the ninth inning, 7-6. Although the Tigers hit well, the Broncos managed to strike back against Princeton's pitching, pushing the game into the bottom of the ninth.

When the team left Princeton, it was a beautiful sunny day, over 60 degrees. When it got to Lawrencville, the winds had picked up with strong gusts, and the temperature had dropped nearly 20 degrees. A cold rain had begun to fall and would not let up for much of the game. Needless to say, the weather made for a difficult environment in which to play a baseball game.

Nonetheless, the Tigers jumped out to a one-run lead in the top of the first inning. Senior shortstop Pat Boran nailed the ball down the right-field line for a double. He took third base when sophomore outfielder Eric Fitzgerald ground out to the second baseman. Boran scored when freshman outfielder Adam Balkan hit a sacrifice fly to left field.

The Broncos tied the game up in the bottom of the second inning when senior pitcher Chris Higgins gave up his only run in the five innings he pitched. Higgins would shut down Rider for the rest of the time he was on the mound.

Meanwhile, the Tigers would continue to knock in runs. Situational hitting, with which they had struggled for most of the season, was the key to driving the score to 5-1 after the top of the fifth inning.

Smart base running and strategically placed hits allowed Balkan to get around the bases in the fourth. The same was the case in the fifth inning as sophomore catcher Tim Lahey and junior second baseman Steve Young scored.

The Broncos were far from done though. In the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers sent in sophomore reliever Nate Miller. Whether it was the weather or just a bad day for Miller, he gave up five runs, giving Rider the lead 6-5. He faced six batters, causing only one out on a caught foul ball to right field against the first batter he faced. From there out, Miller walked two batters and gave up two hits. But it was not just the pitching that fell apart in that inning — the infield did as well. Two key errors by senior third baseman Eric Voelker and Boran allowed Bronco runners to advance to score.

Shortly thereafter, Broome came in for Miller to polish off Rider in the bottom of the sixth.

The Tigers were able to drive in another run in the top of the seventh. Well-placed hits moved Fitzgerald around the bases, tying the score at 6-6.

That deadlock would carry the two teams all the way into the bottom of the ninth, where Brooks' heroics would put the game out of reach for the Tigers.

Although Broome gave up the final run, he only gave up four hits and struck out one. He was the game's losing pitcher.

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Princeton managed eight hits in the bad weather, with three sacrifice flys advancing runners. However, the three errors stick out as the team's weak point of the game.

With this loss, the Tigers end their six-game winning streak, which started in the last two games against William and Mary in their spring break trip and continued in their home sweep of Penn last weekend.