Tigers drop three of four to last-place Columbia

With the baseball team's offense struggling, the Tigers' biggest hit of the day was the one its Ivy League title hopes sustained, as Princeton dropped three of four to Gehrig Division cellar-dweller Columbia.

The Lions swept the Tigers, who were playing at home at Clarke Field all weekend, on Saturday. Columbia took the first game 8-3 and then proceeded to take the second by a score of 6-2.

Princeton's offense was unable to mount much of a charge against Columbia's pitching staff, one that has struggled throughout the season.

In the first game, the Tigers (14-21 overall, 8-8 Ivy League) jumped out to an early lead, as they scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the first. With two outs, junior rightfielder Andrew Salini walked and senior leftfielder Adam Balkan singled. With those two on base, sophomore third baseman Sal Iacono then popped one up to center. The Lions' outfielder charged in hard, but he was unable to make a catch. The ball bounced out of his glove, and Salini came home on the error.

Senior designated hitter Paul Ackerman then drove in Iacono and Balkan on a double to leftfield to make the score 3-0.

But Columbia (7-30, 5-15) slowly chipped away at Princeton's lead, scoring a few runs in the early innings before finally taking the lead in the sixth inning at 4-3.

The Lions followed up the sixth with an explosive seventh, blowing up for four runs to secure the win. The Tigers were unable to mount a charge and fell by the final score of 8-3.

The Columbia offense far outplayed the Princeton offense, as the victors recorded 12 hits to the Tigers' seven. Freshman pitcher Christian Staehely took the loss to drop to 0-4 on the year. He threw seven innings, giving up six earned runs.

The second game was a similar story for Princeton, as the team struggled to get something going at the plate. It looked as if they were going to score early once again, as they had two on and no outs. Salini then ripped a line drive that was caught by the second baseman, who then immediately threw to the shortshop at second. The shortstop in turn relayed to first, recording a rare, and inning-ending, triple play.

The Tigers went ahead in the fifth when Wendkos scored on a wild pitch to make the score, 2-1.

The Lions had a big inning in the fifth, scoring three to go ahead, 4-2. To wrap things up, Columbia scored two more in the ninth on a two-run homer off the foul pole in leftfield.

Sunday was a little more successful for the Tigers, yet they were still only able to take one of two from the Lions.

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The offense finally came out to play in the first contest, as it scored runs in each of the first four innings to give junior pitcher Erik Stiller a nice cushion.

Stiller would barely need the cushion, though, as he once again gave a fantastic performance. He rolled through the Columbia lineup, throwing seven innings and giving up only one run on four hits. The 8-1 victory was his team-leading sixth of the year, to go along with only one loss. His earned run average now stands at 2.61.

The second game was a pitcher's duel, as sophomore Eric Walz took the mound for the Tigers and was equally impressive as Stiller. He struck out a season-high 10 in the game, and gave up only one unearned run in eight and a third innings.

The offense could not provide the necessary support, however. Princeton was only able to drive in one run in the game, as junior first baseman Stephen Wendell scored on sophomore second baseman Aaron Prince's double in the eighth. This put the Tigers up 1-0 going into the final frame.

Disaster struck for Princeton when Prince recorded a two-base fielding error to put the leadoff man on second. After a sacrifice bunt, Walz was pulled in favor of senior closer Brian Kappel. The first batter he faced tripled to knot the game at 1-1. The Lions then went on to score the game winner on a wild pitch from Kappel, who took the loss.

Princeton couldn't do anything offensively in its half of the ninth and dropped the game, 2-1, to finish the weekend with a disappointing 1-3 record.