Junior second baseman Dan DeGeorge and the baseball team (16-21 overall, 8-8 Ivy League) are optimistic heading into this weekend’s four-game series against Cornell (11-24, 5-11). And they need to be. The Tigers are currently three games behind division-leading Columbia with just four games to play, leaving Princeton’s postseason hopes hanging by a thread.
“We need to take all four games from Cornell, and we need Columbia to drop three of their four against Penn,” DeGeorge said of the team’s current standings. “There is no way around that.”
Back on April 12, Princeton won two games against the Lions, creating a tie between the Tigers and Lions atop the Ivy League’s Gehrig Division, but since that day Princeton is 2-4 against Ivy League opponents, while Columbia is 5-1. The Tigers enter this weekend having lost their last three games, including two last Sunday to rival Penn and a 6-2 defeat at St. John’s last Tuesday.
“We have had trouble staying in games for the full nine innings,” DeGeorge said of the Tigers’ inconsistent play. “This team has developed a bad habit of getting behind early, and it is tough to dig yourself out of a hole like that if you are not completely focused mentally.”
Princeton plays a doubleheader today in Ithaca, N.Y., and will return Sunday for a doubleheader at Clarke Field. Junior Brad Gemberling and sophomore David Hale, arguably the team’s two best starters, will pitch today, hoping to put the team in a position to play relevant baseball Sunday.
“Brad has been amazing,” DeGeorge said. “He’s coming off his best outing of the year [a 1-0 win over Penn last Saturday], and we’ll be counting on him and Hale.”
The team will also need steady offensive production from the team’s top hitters. Senior third baseman Spencer Lucian leads the team with a .420 average, DeGeorge leads the team with 40 runs, junior outfielder Derek Beckman leads the team with 14 stolen bases, and sophomores Jack Murphy and Jon Brocious are tied for the team lead with seven home runs each.
“To be successful this weekend we need to stay focused,” DeGeorge said. “We need to get those timely hits and play error-free defense. If we can avoid stupid mistakes, we can avoid giving up bad runs.”
On Sunday, head coach Scott Bradley will put the ball in the hands of a pair of senior starters, Steven Miller and Christian Staehely, for what may be their final starts in a Princeton uniform.
With a 5-11 Ivy League record, Cornell currently sits at the bottom of the Ivy League standings, but the team recently split with Penn and took a game from Columbia.
“The Big Red had a rough start to their Ivy League season, but they have played well of late, and we know better than to write them off,” DeGeorge said. “They always have a solid program, with good players and a good coach.”
The Big Red is led offensively by catcher Nathan Ford, who leads the team with a .420 average, 27 RBI, 15 doubles and 55 hits. Dominic Di Ricco is a dangerous threat as well. The outfielder is batting .339, and leads Cornell in runs, with 30, and stolen bases, with eight.
Corey Pappel and Matt Hill headline the Cornell pitching staff. Pappel, a righthander, is 2-4 with a 5.53 ERA and 33 strikeouts and Hill, a lefty, has a team-high five wins and 34 strikeouts.
Last season, in an eerily similar situation, the Tigers faced Cornell in a four-game series needing a sweep to qualify for postseason play. Princeton won the first three games, then lost the fourth in heartbreaking fashion in the 13th inning — the Tigers loaded the bases with none out in the 12th but were unable to score.
This year, though their odds may be similarly slim, the Tigers know from experience that their season is far from over.
“Stranger things have happened,” DeGeorge said of the possibility of making the Ivy League championship game.
To make the playoffs, the Tigers need Columbia to lose, but before they can check the Lions’ boxscores, they need to handle their own business, and that means sweeping Cornell in two games today and two games Sunday.
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