Thanks to some help from Cornell, the baseball team's 2-2 performance in their series against Columbia was good enough to earn it at least a share of the Lou Gehrig Division title.
The Tigers (21-18 overall, 12-4 Ivy League) accomplished this feat wit a 3-1 win yesterday in the third game of the series, but seemed to want to save the excitement of clinching their spot in the Ivy League Championship series for next weekend, falling 11-4 in the final game.
The Tigers will have to win one of four games against Cornell (8-10, 18-25) to accomplish this task.
Cornell gave the Tigers a little help last weekend, beating second place Penn twice.
In the first game of the series, the Tigers edged out Columbia in an exciting 5-4 game. Down by one in the bottom of the sixth inning, Princeton rallied for two runs to take the lead, 5-4.
Freshman right fielder Andy Salini led off the inning with a single. Salini proceeded to steal second base, and advanced to third on sophomore designated hitter Will Venable's infield single to the right side.
The next batter, senior shortstop Mike Chernoff, brought Salini home with a sacrifice fly that tied the game at five apiece. Venable moved over to second base on the play, and with two outs, it was up to junior left fielder Eric Fitzgerald to come through for the Tigers.
Fitzgerald rose up to the challenge, slapping a single to right field that scored Venable, putting the Tigers up, 5-4.
Junior pitcher Thomas Pauly pitched a scoreless seventh inning to pick up the save, despite allowing the leadoff runner to reach second base with no outs.
Senior pitcher Ryan Quillian threw six innings for his fifth win of the year. Quillian gave up four runs — in the third inning.
Columbia evened things out in the second game of the series. The Lions belted out 14 hits to hand Princeton an 8-2 loss.
Things were going well for the Tigers early on in the game. Junior second baseman Steve Young gave Princeton an early lead, scoring on senior third baseman Jon Miller's groundout in the first inning. Senior pitcher David Boehle was cruising, holding Columbia scoreless in the first four innings.
In the fifth inning, however, the Lions' offense broke through, scoring three runs off of Billy Hess' home run.
Columbia scored in each of the next three innings as well, making it too hard for the Tigers to keep up. Princeton eventually dropped the game, 8-2.
Still looking for the win that would earn them a piece of the Lou Gehrig Division title, the Tigers called on sophomore pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, who was making a long-awaited return to the mound.
Ohlendorf has seen limited innings this year due to a broken hand.
Ohlendorf pitched an impressive game, only giving up one run and five hits in five and a third innings pitched.
"Yeah, I pretty much just threw fastballs," Ohlendorf said of his approach on the mound yesterday.
Eldridge came up with the big hit of the day — a two run single in the third inning off Columbia pitcher Jessen Grant.
Young, who went two-for-three with a walk on the day, registered his first extra-base hit of the season — a double to right-center field.
"I don't really think about it in those terms," Young said. "I know what my role is. I just try to get on base. If I get on base with a double, or with a walk, or with a single, or whatever, I'm doing my job out there."
Young now has 39 singles and one double on the season.
Game four of the series never really went the Tigers' way after Columbia connected for six runs in the third inning off of senior pitcher Mark Siano. The Lions went on to score five more and win, 11-4.
But the task at hand now is to take at least one game from Cornell, which the Tigers hope will happen on Friday at Clarke Field.
"I definitely think we're going into the next weekend with the right mindset," Young said. "Every year we play Cornell, it's not going to be handed to us. We're confident enough with the way that we play, I think we all know that we're going to get that win."
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