Baseball: Tigers travel north

“It’s been an unbelievable series,” head coach Scott Bradley said. “The whole series has been [as close as the fourth game].”

The Tigers will get one last shot at Cornell this afternoon in a one-game playoff that will decide the champion of the Gehrig Division. The winner will face Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series (ILCS) this weekend.

Faced with a do-or-die situation, the Tigers look to senior righthander Brad Gemberling to pitch them into the ILCS. Bradley said Gemberling will get the start over junior righthander David Hale because Gemberling has more experience pitching on short rest. Unlike major-league pitchers, starting pitchers in college baseball normally have a week between outings.

Bradley also said that Hale may still make it to the mound during the game.

“We’re better suited going with [Gemberling],” Bradley said. “We can always use Hale out of the bullpen.”

Gemberling has been one of Princeton’s most reliable starters, going 5-2 on the season and leading the team with 72 strikeouts. Against the Big Red in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, he pitched well by any standard, giving up only one bad pitch — a three-run homer to Cornell outfielder Domenic Di Ricco. Gemberling was lights-out otherwise, putting together a 13-strikeout performance.

“I feel really fortunate to have the ball in this situation,” Gemberling said. “The important thing is not to change my approach at all from Friday’s game. I need to put [Cornell’s batters] away when I get ahead in the count, not walk any guys and get some quick outs.”

With the exception of the Tigers’ 9-7 win in the third game, runs were scarce during the series, as neither team picked up more than four runs in the other three matchups. As such, Gemberling’s pitching will be crucial, and he will look to his slider as his go-to pitch. Gemberling noted his slider’s effectiveness, finding that the Big Red was not as disciplined as it could have been at the plate in his last outing.

“I would say that [Cornell] is kind of a free-swinging team, which is why I was so successful with my slider on Friday,” he said. “Except for their leadoff hitter, they will be looking to swing, and when you work ahead, you can get them to swing at pitches out of the zone.”

The Tigers’ offense will be equally critical to their success. They are still searching for the offensive balance that has eluded them throughout the entire Ivy League season: At the plate last weekend, Princeton managed only six runs, setting aside its nine-run outburst on Sunday afternoon.

Getting the bats going will be especially tough for the Tigers, however, as they will face a tough opponent on the mound today.

“We’re each facing each other’s best arm,” Bradley said. “We will need a big hit [when we have] two outs because it will be difficult to put together [multiple] hits.”

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

Senior infielder Dan DeGeorge leads Princeton offensively with 26 runs scored, 52 hits and a .351 batting average. But the Tigers’ problem all season has not been getting runners on base. Instead, Princeton has had trouble stringing hits together and getting clutch hits with runners in scoring position: Princeton is batting .262 with runners on second and third. The Tigers have left 284 men on base this season.

On the other side of the board, Cornell’s offense did not fare much better than Princeton’s did last weekend. The Big Red scored eight runs over the weekend, setting aside the runs it scored in the third game. Its offense is led by rookie outfielder Brian Billigen, who is batting .394, and senior infielder Nathan Ford, who is batting .371. Ford has hit a team-leading eight home runs, and while Billigen has played in only 27 of Cornell’s 36 games, he has proved his worth with each outing.

The Tigers’ seniors, especially Gemberling, said they hope to be inspired by the thought that this game could be the last of their college careers, and the whole team is buoyed by the knowledge that this team has performed best when its back is against the wall.

“It’s been kind of an up-and-down year,” Gemberling said. “It’s a really fun situation for everyone, and the team’s really excited.”