Baseball to host Harvard in league championship

Just one year has passed since the last time the baseball team matched up against Harvard for the 2002 Ivy League Championship.

In that series, the Tigers had some trouble getting the bats off their shoulders, and were swept 5-1, 2-1.

This weekend, the Tigers finally have a chance to settle the score.

Princeton (25-20 overall, 15-5 Ivy League) will host Harvard (19-21, 11-9) at Clarke Field this weekend in a best two-of-three game series. The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday morning starting at noon, and will play again Sunday afternoon if necessary.

The format of the contest sometimes causes problems for teams that get off to a slow start.

"When you have a bad game, you can't go back and have a good night's sleep," head coach Scott Bradley said. "You have about 15 minutes to regroup, to forget about game one. If you have a bad day, you're done."

This year, Princeton seems to be in a better position to take home the Ivy League championship. Many of the factors that weighed against the Tigers in last year's championship series will be gone.

Last year, a tough 1-0 loss to Cornell in their final game of the season forced the Tigers to travel to Cambridge to play for the title.

Princeton has the best record in Ivy League baseball, and will have home-field advantage this year.

Last year, the Tigers dropped both regular season contests to the Crimson. In the Tigers' two previous contests with Harvard earlier this season, Princeton won both games.

The Tiger pitching staff, led by senior pitchers Ryan Quillian and Mark Siano, held the Crimson to just one run over the 16 innings of the doubleheader.

Junior pitcher Thomas Pauly, who was recently named a unanimous First Team All-Ivy selection, closed out both of the games, providing the Tigers with three and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief.

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Meanwhile, on the offensive end, the Tigers managed five runs (two earned) in the first game, and only two runs in the second game against strong Harvard pitching.

Fans at this weekend's games will likely see nail-biting, low-scoring pitcher's duels that have been characteristic of previous Princeton-Harvard battles.

Starting game one for the Tigers will be Quillian, who is 5-4 on the year and sports a 3.26 ERA, which puts him in third place in the Ivy League for that category.

The Tigers will also hand the ball to their other big guns — senior pitcher David Boehle, Pauly, and sophomore pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, depending on the situation.

"We're not going to name a starter for game two or game three," Bradley said. "We're going to worry about game one. Any three of those guys could start game two or come in relief for game one. With this format, we don't have the luxury of naming starters."

On the Crimson side, Trey Hendricks, Matt Brunnig, and Kenon Ronz will probably be seeing the bulk of the pitching innings.

Ronz came one inning shy of a complete game in the second game of the doubleheader earlier this season, allowing only two runs to the Tigers. Hendricks' 2.86 ERA is second in the Ivy League. He is also batting .387, tops in the Ivy League.

With home-field advantage and having won both contests earlier in the season against the Crimson, the stage seems set for Princeton to reclaim the Ivy League crown.