Early deficit no obstacle for red-hot baseball

It was 4-0 before Princeton retired a single batter in yesterday afternoon's baseball game against Monmouth. But the rough start and early deficit turned out to be no problem for the Tigers, who used a late-inning offensive barrage to overcome the Hawks, winning by a final score of 12-5.

Junior pitcher Matt Sullivan, who is not usually a starter in the Tiger rotation, got the nod in the non-conference game at Clarke Field.

He looked shaky early on, as he walked the first two batters without them even taking the bat off their shoulders. The first swing of the game didn't come until the third batter. And he made it count.

The swing resulted in a blast to straightaway center that cleared the 405 ft. sign and gave the Hawks a 3-0 lead. The rest of the inning didn't get too much better for Princeton, as Monmouth would get two more hits in the frame and score once more, making the count 4-0 after one.

Monmouth picked up one more run in the second off an error.

Meanwhile, the Tigers were struggling to get anything going at the plate. After stringing together two straight hits to open up their half of the second, the next three batters all flew out to end the inning, leaving runners stranded on first and second. Princeton mirrored that performance in the next inning, getting two runners on early but failing to advance them any further.

The Tigers finally got on the board in the fifth, scoring two runs to close the score to 5-2. With one out, senior leftfielder Eric Fitzgerald walked. Junior centerfielder B.J. Szymanski then stepped up to the plate and promptly roped a line-drive to left field that screamed over the fence for a two-run homer, his fourth of the year. Szymanski has displayed his offensive prowess in recent games and is currenly hitting an impressive .385.

There was more power in the next inning for Princeton, as junior rightfielder Adam Balkan launched a two-run bomb that easily cleared the fence and the trees in right-center. It was his second homerun of the year and pushed the score to 5-4 in favor of the Hawks.

By this time, the Tigers seemed to get tired of simply chipping away at the lead and decided to take over in the seventh inning, scoring five runs on five hits. The big hit of the inning was junior pinch-hitter Will Venable's three-run homer that scored senior first baseman Ryan Reich and freshman third baseman Sal Iacono. The inning ended with the Tigers up, 9-5. The barrage would continue in the eighth, as Princeton put up three more runs, one coming off another Szymanski homer, his second of the day.

The Princeton offense absolutely mauled the Monmouth pitching over the last four innings of the game. The team's 12 runs came on 17 hits, five of which were homeruns.