Baseball goes 5-6 on road trip to South

The baseball team has achieved great success in the Ivy League the past few years, but it has not yet established itself on the national scene. A Spring Break trip to North Carolina and Virginia to face Duke (10-8 overall), North Carolina (16-4), North Carolina A&T (1-2), Elon (7-12) and Virginia Commonwealth (13-9) was an excellent opportunity to do just that.

The week was a busy one for Princeton (8-6), which played 11 games in 10 days. Overall, the Tigers were somewhat successful as they went 5-6.

Princeton opened the week in Durham, N.C. with three games against Duke. The Tigers, who were 3-0 coming into the trip, struggled in the first game against the Blue Devils and were handed an 8-1 loss. Junior Ross Ohlendorf pitched four scoreless innings to begin the game but fell apart in the fifth as he gave up three runs. Duke wouldn't stop there, adding five more in later innings while Princeton was only able to muster one run on four hits. Junior outfielder B.J. Szymanski had the only RBI.

The next two games against Duke couldn't have differed more from the first. After crossing the plate only once in game one, the Tigers reached double digits in runs each of the remaining two games, taking both by scores of 13-1 and 10-3, respectively.

Both games followed a similar script as Princeton benefited from an ideal combination of timely offense and solid pitching. Neither game was a blowout until the last innings, in which the Tiger offense went on a surge, scoring eight times in the seventh inning of the second game and five times in the ninth of the third.

Sophomore Erik Stiller earned the win in game two, throwing six strong innings. He recorded five strikeouts and gave up only one run. Freshman Eric Waltz earned his first save of the season.

Freshman Gavin Fabien got the win in the third game, the first of his collegiate career, pitching six innings and giving up two runs on seven hits. Junior Brain Kappel earned his second save of the season.

Senior infielder Steve Young led the offense in both games. The leadoff hitter played his role to perfection, going a combined 6-9 at the plate with four RBIs and five runs in the two victories. Szymanski also kept up his solid hitting, going 2-for-5 in each win.

Elon posed little threat to Princeton, as the Tigers powered their way to a 9-3 victory. Senior hurler Brian Biegan once again provided strong pitching in earning the win. Freshmen hurlers Will Sweeney and Michael Zaret also pitched in their first collegiate appearances.

Szymanski, who has excelled on offense thus far this season, used his defensive skill to clinch the win for Princeton. With the Tigers up 5-3 in the eighth, the Phoenix had runners on second and third with two outs when a line drive was ripped to left-center field. Szymanksi, the center fielder, covered a lot of ground before making a spectacular diving catch at the warning track, conserving the two-run Princeton lead.

The game was broken open in the ninth when sophomore infielder Matthew Becker put four runs on the board in the quickest way possible — with one swing of the bat. The grand slam was Becker's first dinger of his career.

The state schools of North Carolina proved more difficult than Duke and Elon and went a combined 3-0 against the Tigers.

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First was North Carolina, which overwhelmed the Tiger pitching staff. The Tar Heels won both games, 14-8 and 12-2, respectively.

The first game was not pretty for either team, as each contributed to the contest's 12 unearned runs, 17 walks and seven errors. The Tigers gave up six unearned runs in the first two innings alone and another two earned runs, resulting in an early 8-0 lead for North Carolina. Junior pitcher Matt Sullivan ended up with the loss and is now 0-1 on the year.

Things looked good early for Princeton in the second game against North Carolina as the Tigers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but those were the only runs for Princeton as it was able to collect just five hits. Junior pitcher Aaron Herr took the loss in his first start of the year.

The Princeton offense took off the next day against North Carolina A&T, with nine runs on 15 hits. This was not enough, however, as they surrendered three runs in the eighth to give the Aggies the 10-9 win.

The Tigers went on to split four games against Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond. Three of the four games were highly contested as Princeton won the first and third games by a score of 3-1 and 9-7, respectively. They were shut out in games two and four, 5-0 and 1-0, respectively.