Winless streak hits seven

As far as good baseball omens go, not much beats the second hitter of the game blasting the first pitch he sees over the left-field fence for a solo home run.

After Tuesday afternoon's 11-1 loss at Monmouth, though, the Tigers are probably wishing they had done themselves one better.

Freshman shortstop Dan Degeorge went yard for the second time this season to stake the Tigers to a 1-0 lead with one out in the top of the first inning, and it looked like Princeton was ready to give its full support to sophomore pitcher Evan Alexander in his first career start.

But the Tigers (4-16-1 overall, 0-4 Ivy League) were held scoreless over the game's remaining 26 outs, and the Hawks (13-10) exploded for eight runs off Alexander in the bottom of the first to pull away early.

Alexander, who missed his freshman year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, had looked sharp in two appearances out of the bullpen this year. However, he did not even make it out of his first inning as a starter, as he was chased from the game after retiring just two batters.

Before being replaced by sophomore righthander Reid Peyton, Alexander had allowed three hits, registered four walks and hit an astonishing four batsmen.

"It's a process," head coach Scott Bradley said about Alexander's return from injury. "He was very rushed at the start of the game and it just got away from him. He had thrown fairly well his first two outings, though, and you really just have to try to get a gauge on him."

As much as Alexander struggled, six of the eight runs he surrendered went in the books as unearned due to a costly error by freshman leftfielder Andrew Doupe.

Monmouth loaded the bases with one out in the inning without recording a hit, after Alexander walked the leadoff hitter, plunked a batter then allowed a man to reach base on Doupe's gaffe. All in all, 11 straight Hawk hitters reached base as they ran their lead up to seven runs. The inning might have gotten even uglier had Peyton not come into the game with the bases loaded and induced a groundout to Degeorge at shortstop.

The nightmare inning was over, but the Tiger offense, pressing to mount an unlikely comeback, sputtered for the rest of the game. While Peyton, freshman reliever Brad Gemberling and junior reliever Michael Zaret cooled off the Monmouth bats — combining to allow just three runs over the final seven innings — Hawk starter Matt Coulson made sure Princeton would pay for Degeorge's promising start against him.

Over eight dominant innings, Coulson allowed just six hits and one run, leading Monmouth to its 10th straight win. The Tigers, meanwhile, are now winless in their past seven games, heading into a pair of Ivy League road doubleheaders against Brown and Yale this coming weekend.

Degeorge finished the game with two hits, adding a single in the eighth inning and also drawing a walk in the sixth. Junior second baseman Aaron Prince continued his run as Princeton's hottest hitter, coming up with a pair of singles. His batting average of .370 leads the team, as do his 27 total hits. Only four of those hits, however, have been for extra bases — not necessarily the ideal type of production for a player batting third in the lineup.

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The offense was spared true embarrassment, however, in the shadows of Alexander's combustion on the mound. Only two of the runs he allowed were earned, but he took his first loss of the season because only 13 of the 39 pitches he threw went for strikes.

With Princeton's four-man weekend rotation experiencing its ups and downs, the team needs Alexander to prove he can provide stability as the weekday starter.

"I think Evan's got a chance to be a pretty good pitcher for us at some point," Bradley said. "We're going to get him back out there the next time we have a midweek game, and hopefully he'll bounce back and start being effective."

Bradley's gamble seems worthwhile. After all, a zoned-in Alexander might bring the Tigers to a point where they can start taking advantage of their good omens.