Pirates sail to easy win over Princeton

In the first game of last Saturday's doubleheader against Columbia, the baseball team gave up four runs in the first inning and was unable to recover. Yesterday afternoon, yet another big inning for an opponent resulted in a Princeton loss, this one a 7-4 defeat at the hands of Seton Hall following a five-run Pirate second inning.

"I thought we played a good game overall, except for that one inning," senior second baseman Aaron Prince said. "Our pitchers threw the ball well, and our bats woke up too."

The game was originally scheduled to be a home game for the Tigers, but the torrential downpour that pounded Princeton's campus made Clarke Field unplayable, and the game was moved to Seton Hall, where the Pirates are 9-1 this season.

Things started off well for the Tigers, who scored the contest's first run in the top of the second inning. Senior third baseman Sal Iacono doubled to left field, advanced to third on a throwing error and then came home on a wild pitch.

The Princeton lead was short-lived, however, as Seton Hall's big second inning put the Tigers down for good. Freshman pitcher Jon Broscious, starting only his second game of the season, gave up four hits in the second before a single out was recorded, but did an excellent job limiting the damage. With five runs in and two men on, he induced two straight groundballs to prevent any more runs from scoring, and after a walk to load the bases, ended the inning with a fly out to left.

The early deficit forced the Tigers out of their rhythm and required Princeton to play catchup, a role with which no team is fully comfortable.

"It is difficult to overcome an inning like that," Prince said. "There is definitely a sense of urgency — you need to become more aggressive and get into the flow of the game quicker."

The Pirates scored twice more in the fourth off senior reliever Gavin Fabian to stretch their lead to 7-1. The inning started with a measly single up the middle, but a walk and two stolen bases set the stage for Pirates' cleanup hitter John Walsh, who doubled in both runs.

The Tigers started to claw back in the top of the six, but the three-run inning would prove to be too little, too late. Princeton scored on a two-RBI triple by freshman leftfielder Greg Van Horn, who came home on the next pitch, when Prince singled to right.

"I was looking for a first pitch strike," Prince, who is second on the team with 18 runs scored, said. "With a runner on third, I was just trying to put the ball in play, but I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it."

Down 7-4, the Tigers struggled to muster up additional offense, and the game ended without any more runs crossing the plate. In all, the Tigers made the most of their opportunities, stranding only one base runner, but there is no doubt that head coach Scott Bradley is going to expect more production out of his team. The Tigers only managed hits in two innings, the same two innings in which they scored their four runs.

"Hitting is a fleeting thing," Prince said. "One day you have it, another day you don't. We just need to stay aggressive and keep our opponents on their toes."

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The Tigers will continue their Ivy League schedule tomorrow, when they make up Sunday's rained-out doubleheader against Columbia. Those games, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Clarke Field, are critical for the Tigers, who need to gain momentum as they resume Gehrig Division play.

"[These two games] are our season," Prince said. "We need to win them to stay alive. Hopefully tomorrow we can start aggressive, knock in some early runs and not put ourselves in a position where we need to score late in the game."