Baseball to play two double dips against Stony Brook

The baseball team, coming off an exhaustive Spring Break trip in which the Tigers played 11 games in 10 days, will get back in action this weekend with a pair of doubleheaders against Stony Brook (8-7 overall). The home-and-home will open up in Princeton on Saturday, after which the teams will travel to Long Island for Sunday's games.

The Seawolves represent a nice change of pace as far as Princeton's (8-6) opponents go. The Spring Break trip, in which the Tigers went 5-6, consisted of difficult matchups against nationally recognized schools such as Duke, North Carolina, and North Carolina State. Princeton managed to play well in most of the games, especially against the Blue Devils, against whom they won two of three.

Offensive bursts

Most of the wins for the Tigers were in games in which the offense got off to an early start, often putting up a few runs in the first inning. This undoubtedly took a great deal of pressure off the pitching staff, much of which is made up of inexperienced underclassmen.

Cushioned by a lead in these wins, the pitching staff was able to hold the opposition's offense in check for much of the middle innings. The offense then caught fire and put the games away with a late-inning barrage of runs that resulted in a few lopsided final scores such as 13-1 and 10-3.

So far, the Tigers have had little trouble getting runs across the plate. Princeton is led by junior centerfielder B.J. Szymanski, who is hitting at a .417 clip and was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll for his performances last week.

Although the offense is usually the story for Princeton, it is the Tigers' pitching — which was surrounded with questions in the preseason — that has been most impressive thus far. The young staff has been very effective, including five games in which it has held the opponent to fewer than three runs. The Tigers' last game was in fact a pitcher's duel, as freshman Gavin Fabian threw a complete game and held Virginia Commonwealth to one run. Fabian still recorded the loss, however, as the offense was unable to back him up with a run.

This weekend's first matchup will feature junior pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, who comes in with a 2-1 record and a 3.18 earned run average, against Stony Brook's Brian Murtagh. Murtagh holds an ERA of 3.38 and is in the early part of his first season as a starting pitcher after spending most of last year in the bullpen. The Tiger offense will look to take advantage of this inexperience and force the Seawolves to go to a bullpen that has been inconsistent so far this year.

Sophomore Erik Stiller will start the second game for Princeton on Saturday. The righty has a 1-1 record and an impressive 1.50 ERA. In his three starts this year he has allowed a combined three earned runs, two of which came in last start against Virginia Commonwealth. He was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Week for his performances over Spring Break.

Another award winner, freshman Eric Walz — this week's Ivy League Rookie of the Week — will get the nod in the third game of the weekend on Sunday. He has a 2-0 record and got the win in his last start, going eight strong and giving up just three runs in the Tiger win.

Freshman Gavin Fabian will start on the mound for Princeton in the fourth and final game of the weekend.

As is standard in doubleheaders, the first game of each series will last only seven innings, while the second will go the entire nine.