Baseball: Series split forces Gehrig playoff

Princeton (18-18 overall, 10-10 Ivy League Gehrig Division) found this out the hard way Sunday afternoon against Cornell (15-21, 10-10). The Tigers were only two innings away from clinching a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series when a home run from Cornell infielder Frank Hager gave the Big Red a 4-3 lead it would not relinquish.

The two teams will compete in a playoff game Wednesday at Cornell to determine the Gehrig Division winner.

“We hoped we would win it today, so we had a whole week to prepare for the Ivy Championship,” senior infielder Dan DeGeorge said. “We have one more against Cornell, and we’re ready.”

Already up 2-1 in the series — the Tigers split the Friday doubleheader at Clarke Field, then took Sunday’s opener in Ithaca, N.Y. — Princeton jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when senior outfielder Derek Beckman hit a leadoff single and then scored on a sacrifice fly from junior catcher Jack Murphy.

After Cornell scored two runs in the second off junior lefthander Langford Stuber to take a 2-1 lead, the Tigers scored two runs in the third to make the score 3-2.

That score would hold until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Hager’s home run returned the lead to the Big Red.

Pitcher David Rochefort pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his second save of the series for Cornell.

Beckman managed a single off the Big Red closer, but he was stranded at third when sophomore infielder Greg Van Horn grounded out to third base to end the game.

“I don’t think it’s going to be tough at all [to get motivated for Wednesday’s game],” DeGeorge said. “It’s not like we’re down about anything. They scored a couple cheap runs off Stuber in the beginning. If anything, we’re more pumped. We want to come back and beat them and make it to the Ivy League Championship.”

Princeton put together its best hitting game of the series in the opener to Sunday’s doubleheader.

The Tigers tagged Cornell for 15 hits in a 9-7 victory. Every starter in Princeton’s batting order had at least one hit in the win.

“I don’t know if anything was different,” DeGeorge said. “[It was] another nail-biter. We always keep it interesting. [Sophomore lefthander David] Palms didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled and pitched great. Luckily, we got enough runs [to win].”

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With the score knotted at four in the fifth inning, senior catcher Adrian Turnham hit a three-run home run to give the Tigers a 7-4 lead. Two more runs in the seventh inning provided enough support for Palms to record his fifth win of the season. Sophomore closer Matt Grabowski limited the Big Red to one run in two innings of work for his fifth save of the year.

Throughout the Ivy League season, junior righthander David Hale has been the unfortunate recipient of a dearth of run support. In Friday’s opening game, it was a similar story: Princeton managed only two runs. The twist was Hale’s performance on the mound.

The Tigers’ righthander had his mid-90s fastball in tip-top shape. Hale scattered four hits, struck out 10 and held Cornell scoreless for more than six innings as he led Princeton to a 2-0 win.

“Hale pitched great for us,” DeGeorge said. “He’s capable of doing that every time he takes the mound. He’s had some bad luck, and we haven’t helped him out in the previous games. He pitched terrific on Friday, and it’s about time he gave us enough runs.”

Junior outfielder Brian Berkowitz, Hale’s high school classmate, provided the only run support the Tigers needed with a solo home run to left center field in the second inning. Princeton tacked on an insurance run in the fourth inning when Turnham walked to lead off the inning and then scored on a wild pitch.

“It’s fun [playing in so many close games],” DeGeorge said. “The fans probably want to strangle us because we’re giving them heart attacks. It’s fun for us knowing that every pitch, we have to focus. Hopefully we’ll make it a little easier for ourselves on Wednesday, but you have to love it being competitive.”

In the nightcap on Friday, senior righthander Brad Gemberling came up on the short end of a pitching duel with Cornell’s Corey Pappel in a 4-1 loss.

Gemberling, the Ivy League leader in strikeouts coming into the game, added 13 more strikeouts to his season count and limited the Big Red to four runs in over seven innings of work.

With his team in desperate need of a win, Pappel delivered, limiting Princeton to three hits and striking out nine in eight innings.

Rochefort came on to record the save for Cornell in the ninth.

The Big Red did the bulk of its damage in the sixth inning. With the score tied at one and runners on first and second, outfielder Domenic Di Ricco hit a three-run homer to make the score 4-1 and give Pappel all the support he would need.

Princeton’s comeback from four games under .500 in the Ivy League has given the team the mental toughness it needs heading into its one-game playoff against Cornell.

“[Playing so many close games] definitely helps build up mental toughness,” DeGeorge said. “We had high expectations coming into this season because we have a lot of talent. We didn’t perform as well as we liked to in the beginning, but I think it will help us coming down the stretch. We’ve been in this situation before.”

Princeton is only guaranteed one more game this season, and it will be up to the team to make sure the ball bounces the Tigers’ way on these last steps to the Ivy League Championship Series.