Harvard foils baseball's bid to repeat as Ivy League champions

A Gehrig Division championship. Two members of the All-Ivy first team. The league's Rookie of the Year. Defeats of six of the other seven teams in the Ivy League.

The only thing the baseball team did not accomplish this year was a repeat of the Ivy championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Riding the wave of an up-and-down season, Princeton finished the year at 22-23, its last two losses coming in the Ivy Championship Series to Harvard.

The Crimson, the only conference foe the Tigers could not defeat this year, won the Rolfe Division and swept Princeton to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Shortstop Pat Boran '02 led the Tigers with 33 RBI and graduates with school records for career hits (206), runs scored (143), at bats (635) and games played (177).

Boran, one of the two Ivy first-teamers, played in the Cape Cod League last summer and has drawn interest from major league teams.

"He just carries a presence to him that makes everyone else feel more comfortable and more confident," head coach Scott Bradley said. "He can take over games with his speed or he can take over games with his glove."

Boran was joined on the first team by closer Thomas Pauly '04. While tying the single season save mark with nine, Pauly surrendered only 30 hits in 41.2 innings pitched this season. He also had 45 strikeouts compared with only 15 walks.

"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. For all the Yankee fans around here, he's our Mariano Rivera."

A member of the Verizon Academic All-District Baseball Team, Pauly was one of the leaders of the youth movement on the team this year. Five of the nine starters in the lineup were freshmen or sophomores and two of the five starting pitchers were freshmen.

Center fielder Adam Balkan '05 led the team with a .313 average and 55 hits. First baseman Ryan Eldridge '05, a second-team All-Ivy player, finished third on the team with a .298 average.

Their classmate, hurler Ross Ohlendorf, took home Rookie of the Year honors for his team-leading 6-3 record and a 3.02 ERA. He led the team with 51 strikeouts in his 52.2 innings pitched.

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A second young pitcher, Jason Vaughan '05, showed signs of excellence early in the Ivy season, although he slowed toward the end. In two consecutive starts against Ivy foes Dartmouth and Brown, Vaughan surrendered just five hits and no runs in 17.1 innings pitched.

The future looks bright for the Tigers, as Balkan and Eric Fitzgerald '04 and Ryan Reich '04 look to anchor the outfield for the next two years.

"The thing all our young guys learn how to do is to approach coming to the ballpark each day and learning how to forget a bad at-bat, a bad day," Bradley said of his outfield before the season. "It's just mental toughness, and it's having a real good approach that every time you walk out there."

Boran and third baseman Eric Voelker '02 will be missed in the infield, but Steve Young '04 proved his worth as a utility man and will be counted on to fill in for the graduates.

Young made big plays all year at second and third base and in right and left field. His team-leading three triples earned him an All-Ivy honorable mention.

Princeton is also well-anchored behind the plate. Tim Lahey '04 started the majority of games and Jon Miller '03 filled in as the backstop when not playing DH.

Both received honorable mentions for their play. Lahey hit only .257 but provided the team with power, leading the Tigers with three home runs. Miller hit .297 and led Princeton with 11 doubles.

Next year, Princeton hopes to add the Ivy League title to its list of accomplishments. Then the Tigers will strive to make their mark on the rest of the country in the NCAA tournament.