Baseball team to represent Ivies in NCAA regionals

With all its Ivy League foes vanquished, the two-time defending conference champion Princeton baseball team must now look ahead to an even larger task: the NCAA tournament.

The NCAA tournament has not been kind to members of the Ivy League. In fact, an Ivy school has not participated in a NCAA championship baseball game since 1948, when Yale made its second straight appearance that resulted in its second straight runner-up finish.

The Tigers, though, have been more successful than many of their conference opponents, especially in the past decade. While many consider it a fantastic season to even make it to the opening round, Princeton is beginning to look at it as routine.

The reason for this has been the Tigers' domination of the Ivy League. They have now won the Ivy League Championship two years in a row and have won four of the last five. Furthermore, this year marked the ninth consecutive appearance for Princeton in the regular-season ending Ivy League Championship Series.

A conference title means an automatic birth into the opening round of the NCAA tournament. This, however, is a long way from the famed College World Series, held anually in Omaha, Nebraska.

Similar to the NCAA basketball tournament, 64 teams from across the country get a chance to play for a national title. Unlike the basketball version however, six games are not enough to decide the matter. Last year's champion, Rice, had to play 13 games to clinch the title.

The journey begins with the first-round regionals that take place in 16 sites throughout the country. From there, one of the four teams at each site will advance on to the next round, termed Super Regionals. Here, two teams play a best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the College World Series.

Last year, the Tigers, after winning the Ivy League, were quickly trounced in their regional match-ups. Playing as the fourth seed, they started against No. 1 seeded Auburn, who was also playing host on its home field in Alabama. Princeton was unable to get anything going and dropped the game, 5-2.

Fortunately for the Tigers, the tournament is not a one-and-done deal. Instead, they had one more chance to extend their season against No. 2 seeded Clemson. The resulting loss was especially disappointing for Princeton, as it lost by one run in the 10th inning to bring its season to an end.

With experience on their side, the Tigers now look forward to this year's tournament with confidence.

"We've been there before, so we know what it's like," senior catcher Tim Lahey said. "I can guarantee that we won't be caught off-guard by the nice facilities and the strong teams."

The competition will be something very different for Princeton, who plays most of its games against Ivy League opponents who aren't as skilled as many teams who will make the tournament.

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"All of the teams in regionals have depth and are solid all around," Lahey said. "Teams in the Ivies, especially some pitching staffs, can be lacking in depth."

It won't be a complete shock for the Tigers, however, as they did face several nationally respected teams over Spring Break. Still, other challenges face Princeton.

"We are forced into a longer break than most other teams, who play all the way up into the tournament," Lahey said.

This is also the reason why the brackets and sites for the upcoming tournament have not been released. Those will be announced May 31 and the opening round will take place June 5, 6, and 7.