This weekend, baseball played its first two Ivy League doubleheaders of the season in the friendly confines of Clarke Field — against Brown on Saturday and Yale on Sunday.
Princeton (10-15 overall, 3-1 Ivy League) split its games with Brown (7-17-1, 2-2), losing the first, 7-3, and winning the second, 8-6. Against Yale (9-13, 1-3), the Tigers won the first game of the doubleheader, usually a seven-inning affair, 7-4, in eleven innings. Princeton won the second game with much less of a struggle, 16-6.
Most of the action of the first game against Brown was in the top of the first. The contest was never in doubt after that inning.
The Bears hammered senior right-handed pitcher Ryan Quillian (2-3) for six hits and five runs in the first frame of the contest, including a three-run home run from Brown's shortstop, Paul Christian.
After the homerun, which just cleared the right field 313 feet sign and put Brown up, 5-1, Quillian allowed a single down the left field line to designated hitter Cameron Johnson. Quillian finally ended the inning by inducing right fielder Eric Larson into a 6-4-3 double play.
Quillian settled down after that tough first inning and gave up only two more runs in the complete game.
The home half of the third inning was the only offensive highlight of the game for the Tigers, who played small ball and got timely hits from the heart of the order to generate two runs.
Brown scored in the top of the fifth to bring the lead to 6-2. The teams traded runs in the seventh and final frame, and Brown came out on top, 7-3.
Guns blazing
In game two against the Bears, the Tigers came out with guns blazing, scoring twice in the first inning and four times in the next.
The starting pitcher for the Bears, Sam Jennings, only lasted 1.1 innings, in which he gave up six runs. After getting the first batter to ground out to second, he loaded the bases because of a throwing error on Brown second baseman Robert Deeb, a walk, and a hit batsman.
Two of the runners scored off a hit from sophomore center fielder B.J. Szymanski, and the third, junior second baseman Steve Young, scored along with Szymanski off of a double from senior third baseman Jon Miller. In the top of the fifth, the Bears were threatening with one out and Deeb on second base, when Brown third baseman Jeff Nichols hit a fly ball to right centerfield. Szymanski caught the ball and then fired it toward third base hoping to catch Deeb, who had tagged up at second. Szymanski's throw one-hopped in the dirt just behind Deeb before it sped just in front his sliding feet for the third out of the inning.
Szymanski's outfield assist was one of five instances in the two games in which the Tigers forced an out through Brown base-running blunders.
Brown did not lay silent the rest of the game, however, and the Bears slowly chipped away at the lead. In the seventh inning of the nine-inning second game, Brown racked up three runs on Tiger senior pitcher Mark Siano. Brown centerfielder Matt Kutler launched a three-run homer that tied the score. Siano got the next batter out, but it was the end of his day.
The Tigers brought in the closer in the eighth, junior Thomas Pauly, who warms up to "Why Can't We Be Friends?" to stop the scoring from Brown.
Sophomore designated hitter Will Venable provided the heroics in this one, knocking the game-winning hit up the middle of the infield to score junior catcher Tim Lahey — who threw out four steal attempts. The Tigers added another insurance run on a sacrifice hit from Szymanski, but Brown was unable to score on Pauly in the top of the ninth, and Princeton won game two, 8-6.
Yale came calling on Sunday, but left disappointed after two losses. In the first game, the Elis kept it interesting by forcing extra innings with a run in the seventh.
Yale first baseman Josh Zabar drove the ball into left field with runners on second and third, scoring one and evening the game at 4-4.
Neither team could muster a run until the home half of the 11th inning, when junior left fielder Eric Fitzgerald came up to bat with two men on and one out after an intentional walk to get to him. Fitzgerald ripped a pitch from Mike Elias over the outfield fence for a three-run walkoff homerun.
In Princeton's final game of the weekend, it demolished the Elis, scoring 16 runs on 17 hits. The Tigers trailed to Yale up until the bottom of the fifth inning when they evened the score at 5 with three runs, thanks to an error and two sacrifice hits.
Princeton capped on another 11 runs in its last three trips to the plate to secure the 16-6 blowout.
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