Baseball: Bats stay cold in road loss

“We haven’t been very consistent,” head coach Scott Bradley said. “Baseball is just weird. One day we look good, [and] the next it kind of just disappeared on us.”

Because it was not a league game, the pitching situation was flexible, and Bradley told the players before the game that the team would give some of its underclassman pitchers opportunities to take the mound.

Junior righthander Ross Staine started the game and ran into trouble early, as a hit batter and a single set up a three-run home run from Monmouth infielder Ryan Terry. Two more singles followed, and a double play scored the fourth run of the inning for the Hawks. A groundout to sophomore infielder Greg Van Horn ended the inning.

But the Hawks were just getting started, as they added to their lead in the third inning. With sophomore righthander Chad Ohlendorf pitching, a single and a double set up another three-run Monmouth home run, this time from Monmouth infielder Rick Niederhaus. Later in the inning, the Hawks had runners on first and third with two outs, but Ohlendorf managed to get a pop fly to Van Horn to end the inning.

The damage had already been done, however, as Monmouth had a 7-0 lead after only three innings.

In those same three innings, the Tigers hadn’t managed a single hit.

“Especially with offense, [baseball] is a game where you have to be focused but not relaxed,” Bradley said. “The harder you try, the worse off you are. Offensively, we’re trying to do too much.”

Princeton showed some signs of life in the top of the fourth inning, with senior infielder Dan DeGeorge singling through the infield to start off the inning.

Van Horn followed up with another single, putting runners on the corners with no outs. As soon as the bats had warmed up, though, they cooled down again, as all that was managed was a sacrifice fly from junior catcher Jack Murphy. After DeGeorge scored, junior outfielder David Hale hit into a double play, flying out to right field and allowing Van Horn to be picked off at first.

Monmouth added another run in the fifth inning when they scored off a passed ball, but a two-run homer from DeGeorge in the sixth negated that advantage, bringing the score to 8-3.

The Hawks smashed another home run in the seventh, this time from the bat of outfielder Brett Holland.

It was in the eighth inning that the Tigers’ defensive struggles came to the fore, as three errors led to three more unearned runs scored off sophomore pitcher Matt Grabowski, bringing the final score to 12-3.

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Luckily for Princeton, Tuesday’s game was a non-league matchup. While no team likes to lose, the path to the NCAA tournament runs through the Ivy League.

“Weekends are what it is about,” Bradley said. “A midweek game makes little difference. We need to make some adjustments offensively.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it seems as if all of their bats have fallen silent in a matter of days, with DeGeorge the only bright spot.

Tuesday, DeGeorge went three-for-three with a home run and a walk, contributing more hits than the rest of the players on the team combined.

Bradley hopes that this trend is not likely to continue.

“A lot of guys are due to get a lot of hits,” Bradley said. “Things get magnified if somebody gets off to a slow start.”

Because no team in the Gehrig Division of the Ivy League swept all of their games last weekend, Princeton is still in the mix.

In fact, Columbia leads the division with a 2-2 league record, while the Tigers are currently only one game behind with a 1-3 record in Ancient Eight competition.

As long as the Princeton bats begin to heat up and the offense regains the consistency it had in the first two weekends against William & Mary and Navy, Bradley believes his team will fare well.

“We have nothing to worry about,” Bradley said. “We teach our guys that the most important play in baseball is the next one. What has happened doesn’t make any difference whatsoever.”

Princeton now has three days of batting practice, and the team plans to put that time to good use.

“We can get some guys some extra swings and do some work [in the next few days],” Bradley said.

The Tigers will attempt to break out of their slump next weekend in a four-game series, with doubleheaders at Dartmouth on Saturday and at Harvard on Sunday.