Baseball: Rider blanks squad as bats remain cold

Junior pitcher Ross Staine (0-2) gave up seven hits and two runs in three innings for the loss. Senior infielder Adrian Turnham had two hits for the Tigers.

Princeton managed only five hits in the game and gave up 15 base knocks to Rider. Though the Tigers’ rotation only had two days to come back after 40 innings of baseball over the weekend, head coach Scott Bradley said he did not think the rotation was stretched thin.

“I told [sophomore pitcher] Matt Grabowski that he was off after pitching eight innings against Harvard,” Bradley said. “The other guys had a chance to get some work. I thought they pitched well. We’ve just struggled so bad offensively.”

Rider opened the scoring in the third inning when infielder Sean Olson blasted a home run off Staine. Two batters later, infielder Steve Galella roped a double to deep center to drive in a run and make the score 2-0.

In the fifth inning, it was a different pitcher but the same story. Junior pitcher Tim Feess got into a jam, putting runners on first and second with no outs. With the stage set, Olson hit a single to give Rider another run. Galella then hit his second double of the game to drive in Olson and extend the Broncs’ lead to 4-0.

Though Princeton found itself in a hole midway through the game, the score could have been much worse. Rider had 13 hits in the first six innings and left runners on base each time it was at bat.

“We played pretty good defensively,” Bradley said. “We haven’t consistently swung the bat and scored that much. You need to score runs to win in college baseball.”

After sophomore pitcher Chad Ohlendorf loaded the bases in the seventh-inning with no outs, a sacrifice fly from Maurice Williams gave Rider a 5-0 lead. Once again, major disaster was averted as Rider catcher Eric Woodrow’s two-out line drive found the glove of senior outfielder Derek Beckman to keep the score within reach.

The Broncs added another run in the eighth-inning off an RBI single from A.J. Albee. Junior catcher Jack Murphy made a heads-up play to throw behind Albee and catch the Rider second baseman in a pickle. After Ohlendorf struck out Olson, the Tigers headed into the bottom half of the eighth down 6-0.

Beckman led off the eighth inning with a line drive double to left-center field. With the heart of its order coming to the plate, Princeton failed to start a late-inning rally as Caldwell retired three straight batters. The Tigers’ best chance to put a run on the board in the inning came when Murphy launched a line drive over the outfield fence in foul territory. On the next pitch, Murphy grounded out to the shortstop to send the game into its final frame.

“A lot of our hitters have been tentative,” Bradley said. “They haven’t been as aggressive as [they] need to be. We’ll have two guys swing the bat well one weekend and then two different guys hit well the next weekend.”

With a pivotal weekend series coming up against Gehrig Division-leading Columbia, the Tigers need to turn their woes at the plate around in a hurry.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“We saw some positives in the [13-12 loss in 17 innings] against Harvard. We showed some heart and scored three runs with two outs in the ninth,” Bradley said. “That shows your team that games aren’t over until the last out.”

Princeton should hope its late-inning dramatics show up early against Columbia. If the Tigers can win three games this weekend, they will climb back into a tie for first place in the Gehrig Division.

“This is a make or break weekend for us,” Bradley said. “You want to be playing for something at the end of the season.”