Baseball: Title run ends in 9-0 rout

Senior pitcher Brad Gemberling — the baseball team’s right-handed ace and the Ivy League leader in strikeouts — retired the first two batters in what appeared to be a routine bottom of the first inning in Princeton’s (18-19 overall, 10-11 Ivy League) Gehrig Division playoff game against Cornell (16-21, 11-10) on Wednesday. Then disaster struck.

Gemberling walked three straight batters — two of them on full counts — and allowed a single, a home run, two doubles, another single and one final walk before being relieved by sophomore lefthander David Palms. After allowing two more hits, Palms finally struck out designated hitter Frank Hager, the Big Red’s 14th batter of the frame, to end the inning.

But the damage had been done. Princeton never put a dent in Cornell’s 9-0 first-inning lead, and the score held up, sending the Big Red into the Ivy League Championship Series.

“If you’re around baseball long enough, you see anything,” head coach Scott Bradley said. “That was about as bizarre as anything you could see. Brad got the first guy, got the next guy, then lost control of his command, and before you knew it they had nine runs in. There’s no way to explain it.”

If the Tigers were Superman, Cornell pitcher Corey Pappel would be kryptonite. Six days ago, Pappel — a six-foot, six-inch righthander with a live fastball — limited Princeton to one run and struck out nine in a 4-1 win at Clarke Field.

On Wednesday, Pappel did himself one better, allowing only two hits and striking out 11 over six innings for the win. Princeton did not have a runner reach base until senior outfielder Derek Beckman walked to lead off the fourth inning.

“Pappel is very good,” Bradley said. “Coming into this year, we thought he had a chance to be one of the dominant pitchers in the league. He got off to a slow start, but the way he threw at our place last week, you could see our guys were having a hard time picking up his pitches. We swung at a lot of pitches in the dirt.”

“[Pappel] made it tough, but it was just way too easy [for him],” he added. “When [he got] staked to a 9-0 lead, he was able to relax.”

The Tigers’ best chances to score off Pappel came in the fourth and fifth innings, when they had runners on first and second base. Each time Princeton threatened, Pappel dialed up another strikeout until Stephen Osterer relieved him in the seventh inning.

“It’s just unfortunate that we picked a day like today to have this kind of game,” Bradley said. “There’s no way of explaining it. It’s baseball.”

Princeton managed only two base runners in the final three innings. Senior infielder Adrian Turnham was hit by a pitch in the seventh, and junior outfielder David Hale walked with two outs in the ninth. Ultimately, the Big Red’s bullpen proved too strong, as Osterer, Jadd Schmeltzer and closer David Rochefort combined to shut the door on the Tigers and wrap up the 9-0 win. The Tigers ended the game with 18 strikeouts.

“The big downfall this year was our offense. I don’t think we got any better offensively as the year went on,” Bradley said. “We had 17 games this year where we scored three or fewer runs. When you’re playing with aluminum bats, that’s not very good.”

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To its credit, Princeton’s rotation bore down to keep the game from getting out of hand. Palms, freshman righthander Ryan Makis and sophomore righthander Matt Grabowski combined to allow only two hits after the first inning. All three pitchers will be back next year and should play prominent roles on the mound for the Tigers.

“Everybody did a good job, but the way Pappel was throwing, I’m sure they felt pretty comfortable with a 9-0 lead that we weren’t going to be able to put too much together,” Bradley said.

The loss signifies the end of the college baseball careers of Princeton’s four senior starters.

“The guys that we have, with [senior infielder] Danny [DeGeorge], Derek, Adrian and Brad, have been a very big part of a lot of our teams,” Bradley said. “They’re great leaders and great kids. You wish for those guys that they wouldn’t have to finish up their careers playing in a game like today. But we told them baseball’s not fair. They’re going to look back on a lot of great memories.”

As the Tigers think back on what might have been, they can only wonder what would have happened if that third out had not proved so elusive.