Baseball: Pitching falters on Ancient Eight trip

In its fifth, Brown needed only six innings to top that mark.

Princeton (8-19 overall, 3-5 Ivy League) could not keep Brown (9-17, 6-2) off the base paths on Saturday, allowing 29 runs on 38 hits in a pair of contests in Providence, R.I. The Tigers lost the first game 17-4, and though their offense put on a show in the nightcap, it was not enough to avoid a 12-11 defeat. Princeton picked up an 8-7 win in its opener on Sunday at Yale (15-12-1, 3-5) but dropped the second 6-5.

The Tigers received an encouraging performance by their offense, which has consistently improved throughout the season. Princeton came into the game batting just .253, but the Tigers banged out 43 hits in four games and more than doubled their run total from last weekend. Sophomore catcher Sam Mulroy broke out of his slump to hit 10 for 17 with eight RBI, and freshman first baseman John Mishu went seven for 15.

“The key for us is getting guys to hit at numbers one through nine [in the lineup],” senior second baseman Noel Gonzales-Luna said.

But the pitching staff, usually a major strength for the Tigers, had a rocky weekend. Princeton posted a 12.44 ERA in four games and allowed Brown and Yale to bat a combined .385.

Princeton’s run-prevention problems were at their worst in the first game. The Tigers scored a run in the top of the first inning, but Brown answered with three in its half of the frame. The fourth inning took all suspense out of the contest, as the Bears put up eight runs to blow the game open. Junior starter Dan Barnes, who pitched into the 10th inning in his last appearance, could not record an out in the fourth and gave up nine earned runs.

“The field [on Saturday] was playing like a bandbox,” Gonzales-Luna said. “The wind was blowing out at 20–30 mph all day, and any ball up in the air had a chance to go over the outfielder’s head. Our pitchers struggled to get in a groove, and Barnes got hit up a bit. But it should have been an offensive day, based on the conditions.”

Junior starter David Palms came into the weekend with a team-best 3.73 ERA, but his outing in the nightcap was even shorter than Barnes’s. Palms was pulled in the third inning after allowing eight runs on 10 hits. The lefty’s style did not suit the conditions well. Batters often hit the ball in the air against Palms — he recorded six flyouts and no groundouts on Saturday — and two of those fly balls, aided by the wind, left the yard in the first inning.

Facing an 8-4 deficit, the Tigers staged a rally of their own in the fifth inning. Freshman first baseman John Mishu led off the inning with his third hit of the game, and senior right fielder Jon Broscious brought him home with a dinger. The bottom three hitters in the Princeton lineup loaded the bases, setting the stage for consecutive RBI base hits by Gonzales-Luna, Mulroy and senior designated hitter Brian Berkowitz. Broscious capped the rally with his second hit of the inning, a double that drove in Berkowitz and put Princeton up 12-8.

The Bears finally got to freshman pitcher Kevin Link in the seventh inning, tagging the righty for three runs. But Princeton retained a one-run lead heading into the final frame. The Tigers had a chance to add some insurance in their half of the ninth, but freshman shortstop Matt Bowman was thrown out trying to score on a Mulroy single. In the bottom half of the inning, Brown first baseman Mike DiBiase stroked his eighth hit of the doubleheader, a double to center, to bring home infielder Graham Tyler and tie the game. Junior reliever Matt Grabowski came on for Link and got two outs, but right fielder Josh Feit poked a 2-2 offering into right field for the game-winning hit.

“I give [Grabowski] a lot of credit for getting two outs,” Gonzales-Luna said. “He had the last batter 0-2, but [Feit] battled back and found a pitch to get to the outfield. It’s definitely a hard loss to swallow. We felt we had a game we could win, and it hurts, but our games are going to be close and hard-fought all year.”

Princeton’s bats stayed hot early on against Yale. The Tigers smacked four hits in the first inning, leading to four runs. They loaded the bases to start the second, allowing Mulroy to bring in three more runs with a triple to center. Freshman starter Zak Hermans had more success than either of his predecessors the day before. Hermans gave up three runs in the second but allowed nobody else to score through six innings.

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

Mishu plated Mulroy with a double in the top of the fourth to extend the Princeton lead to 8-3. That run would prove very important. Hermans started the decisive seventh inning and got to 0-2 counts on outfielder Andrew Kolmar and first baseman Josh Scharff, but both hitters managed base hits.

Grabowski was again called upon to clean up the damage. The righty got infielder Gant Elmore to pop out but then gave up three hits to bring the Bulldogs within one. An error by Gonzales-Luna put the winning run on base, and the runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch. But Grabowski battled through an eight-pitch at-bat to strike out outfielder Andrew Moore and then retired infielder Trey Rallis on a ground ball to close out the game.

The final contest of the weekend was another close affair. Senior starter Langford Stuber gave up three runs in the second inning but held the Bulldogs otherwise scoreless through four. Freshman outfielder Nathan Baird led off the fifth with a homer to tie the game at 3-3. Junior infielder Matt Connor and sophomore outfielder Tom Boggiano followed with base hits and came around to score to give Princeton its first lead of the ballgame.

But the Tigers could not hold the advantage for long, as their defense betrayed them. Yale tagged Langford for another run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a ground-rule double by outfielder Charlie Neil. In the sixth, Bowman allowed a pair of four-pitch walks to infielder Matt Schmidt and Elmore, who each came around to score on Princeton errors.

Down 6-5, Princeton managed some offense in the final three innings but could not push a run across. Mulroy and Broscious doubled in the seventh and eighth, respectively, but each was stranded in scoring position. Bowman earned a walk with one out in the ninth, but a pair of harmless ground balls gave Yale a one-run victory.

The 1-3 weekend means Princeton will be playing catch-up in the Ivy League. Only Cornell has a worse league record than the Tigers, who are now three games behind Columbia in the Gehrig Division.