Baseball needed only one win in four tries against Cornell this weekend to clinch the Lou Gehrig Division championship and a birth in the Ivy League Championship Series.
They got three.
After dropping the first game of Friday's doubleheader at Clarke Field, 2-0, Princeton (25-19 overall, 15-5 Ivy League) found its bats in game two, blowing out the Big Red (16-20, 9-11) to secure the title with a 19-2 win.
The teams played another doubleheader Sunday in Ithaca, N.Y., and the Tigers tuned up for the ILCS with 4-0 and 9-3 wins.
Senior Ryan Quillian (5-4) got the first chance on the mound to clinch Princeton's sixth straight Gehrig Division title, but he got little help.
The Tigers' bats were stifled by Big Red pitcher Dan Baysinger, who tossed a complete-game shutout in Cornell's 2-0 seven-inning first-game win.
There were only five hits and no runs on the board going into the fifth inning. Right fielder Jon Finch started off the top half with a single for the Big Red before catcher Matt Goodson bunted him to second.
First baseman Jim Jackson then singled Finch home, reached second on an error, and scored on a single by third baseman Dan Parant.
That was all the support Baysinger needed. Princeton got two straight one-out singles in their half of the fifth but shortstop Mike Chernoff lined into a double play to end the Tigers' last threat.
The Big Red, which needed a sweep this weekend to force a three-way tie for first in the division, fell apart in game two.
Rout
Senior David Boehle (4-2) got out of some first-inning trouble for Princeton, and his hitters strung together a six-run second inning to get the Tigers on track for their clinching win.
Princeton buried Cornell with five runs in the fourth, four more in the fifth, and another four in the eighth in the 19-2 rout.
Sophomore outfielder Adam Balkan had a fabulous game, going 3-6 with a home run, four runs batted-in and four runs scored.
Sophomore Will Venable was 3-5 with three RBI and three runs scored, and junior outfielder Eric Fitzgerald was also 3-5.
"There are times," head coach Scott Bradley said, "when this is the best we've ever had here. They're a big, strong, athletic team."
The win made Sunday's doubleheader in Ithaca essentially meaningless for both squads — Cornell with its season now sentenced to just two more games and Princeton with its goal once again realized.
Junior Thomas Pauly (5-1), the most highly-scouted player on the Tiger roster, got a rare start on the mound and did not disappoint.
Pauly struck out 11 batters and threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout in Princeton's 4-0 win.
The Tigers scored all of their runs in the first two innings, thanks to some missed opportunities in the field by the Big Red.
Junior second baseman Steve Young led off the game with a bunt attempt and reached on an error before sophomore centerfielder B.J. Szymanski tripled him home.
Senior third baseman Jon Miller, the team's top hitter, then lifted a fly to right field that was dropped, allowing Szymanski to score.
Then it was Ryan Eldridge's turn, and the sophomore first baseman smashed a double that tipped off his rival first baseman's glove and into right field.
Fitzgerald scored on another error in the second for the fourth Princeton run.
What started as a pitcher's duel in game two of the seond doubleheader turned out to be a hitting spree.
Sophomore Ross Ohlendorf (1-1) pitched six scoreless innings of two-hit baseball before being replaced by senior Mark Siano.
Siano surrendered three runs in the bottom of the seventh and the Tigers looked finished in the season finale, but the bats suddenly came alive as Princeton scored four times in the eighth and five times in the ninth.
Eldridge had just one hit in the game but five RBI. He grounded out in the eighth to score a run and then hit a grand slam in the ninth.
Princeton now turns its focus to the ILCS, a best-of-three series which will take place at Clarke Field this weekend against Harvard, the winner of the Red Rolfe Division.
"It doesn't get boring playing in the championship," Bradley said. "Every year we've played games at the end of the season that mean something."
And this year is no different.
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