Reich's RBI single leads baseball past Pirates

Yesterday afternoon, the baseball team took advantage of the balmy 75-degree weather to spend a couple of leisurely hours at the ballpark —and to sink Seton Hall (12-16 overall, 5-7 Big East) before the Pirates could swashbuckle a victory away from the Tigers (15-15, 7-1 Ivy League).

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning, no outs, and the game tied at three apiece, junior designated hitter Ryan Reich came up to bat. Reich was batting only .115 coming into the game, with a paltry seven runs batted-in on the season. The junior swayed his bat waiting for the pitch from Matt Cuttruff. Upon delivery, Reich's bat struck the ball through the left side of the infield, giving him his eighth and ninth RBIs of the year, and putting Princeton up for good, 5-3.

Seton Hall gave Princeton a scare in the bottom of the ninth prompting the Tigers to bring in senior pitcher Bill Broome to shut the door after a leadoff walk. The Pirates were able to work Broome into a jam with runners on first and third with two outs. Then Patrick Sullivan knocked a sizzler sharply up the middle hoping to drive in Lou Santangelo from third base, but senior shortstop Mike Chernoff made a diving stop and flipped the ball to junior second baseman Steve Young to secure the win.

It took a little longer to lock up the victory than the Tigers would have liked, however. They scored a run in the bottom of second, but then watched Seton Hall score three runs — two in the fourth and one in the top of the sixth.

Princeton was unable to turn its offense on in the early going as effectively as it has in earlier games this season, settling for no more than a slow drip of two hits in five innings against Pirate starter Ben Grams.

When Seton Hall elected to pull Grams from the game in favor of relief pitcher Montgomery Gray, a deluge of runs poured forth from the Princeton bats, which knocked in four runs in two innings as soon as Gray came in.

Gray promptly gave up hits to three of the first four Tiger batters of the sixth inning, including a two-RBI double down the left-field line from freshman catcher Zach Wendkos. The next inning, Reich's heroics — which charged two more runs to Gray's record since the runners on base were his — put the Tigers ahead for good.

Gray's bullpen counterpart on the Princeton side was in fact four Tiger relievers who allowed a total of one run and kept the Tigers within striking distance after freshman starter Erik Stiller walked the plank after the fourth inning. His immediate replacement, junior southpaw Nate Miller, struck out the first three batters he faced before K.C. Grimm knocked a home run over the right field fence in the top of the sixth that just missed a Mercedes parked outside of the Princeton Stadium across the street.