Baseball: Quakers to visit for four-game series

After winning just two of its previous 11 contests, the baseball team will try to get back on track with four games this weekend against Penn. The Tigers (9-24 overall, 4-8 Ivy League) return to Clarke Field after spending two consecutive weekends on the road to play doubleheaders against the Quakers (16-16, 6-6) today and Saturday. The games were originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, but were pushed forward because of forecasted rain.

The Tigers currently stand five games behind Columbia in the Gehrig Division with eight games to play, leaving their playoff hopes essentially dead. The Quakers, on the other hand, still have an outside shot at reaching the postseason. Penn trails the Lions by three games, but it closes the season with a four-game series against the division leader.

The Quakers’ biggest strength is an explosive offense. They are currently batting .317 and scoring 7.9 runs per game, both tops in the Ivy League. Penn has put up at least 10 runs in four of its last six games.

“Penn has scored quite a few runs, but we’re looking forward to playing them,” head coach Scott Bradley said. “Our pitching has been inconsistent this year, and we have to play better defense. But when our pitching is at the top of its game, we can keep anybody down.”

The visitors will look to the top of the lineup to initiate offense. Left fielder Jeremy Maas is hitting .373 from the leadoff position. Maas is followed in the lineup by the best hitter in the Ivy League, Dan Williams. The shortstop boasts a .425 batting average, 42 runs scored and 14 doubles, each of which leads the Ivy League. Williams is the only player in the conference who has reached base in more than half of his plate appearances.

Princeton has had difficulty preventing runs recently. Its staff was strong against Columbia, posting a 4.34 ERA, but it gave up 43 runs in four games at Yale and Brown the previous weekend. The Tigers have had even more trouble keeping opponents off the board in non-league games, allowing 46 runs in their last three midweek contests. Defense has been a major issue, as Princeton has committed 17 errors in its last six games.

However, in their last weekend at Clarke Field, the Tigers’ pitching and defense were excellent, allowing only 12 runs in 38 innings against Harvard and Dartmouth. Junior starter David Palms and the rest of the Princeton pitching staff is glad to be back home.

“I don’t think the last few weeks are representative of what we can do as a pitching staff,” Palms said. “We had a couple rough weekends. At Brown, the wind blows out like crazy, making it really easy to hit homers. And Columbia has a very short fence, so we’ve been at some unfriendly parks for pitchers. But our home field is very pitcher-friendly, and it gives the fielders very clean bounces, so we think we’ll be able to get back on track.”

Penn’s top four starters have been very solid this season, as each member of its rotation boasts an ERA under 6.50. Vince Voiro paces the staff with a 4.15 ERA, with three complete games supplanting a 3-1 record. Paul Cusick has 1.99 walks-plus-hits per inning pitched, which is poor, but matches up well with the Princeton offense because he makes batters miss. Cusick has fanned 42 batters in just 37.2 innings, and the Tigers have struck out 278 times this season, 68 more times than any other Ivy League team.

Princeton ranks last in the league with a .259 batting average, but that number masks a young lineup that is improving. Sophomore catcher Sam Mulroy is on fire, with four home runs in his last six games, while freshman first baseman John Mishu has a .545 on-base percentage in his last three games. Senior second baseman Noel Gonzales-Luna leads the team with a .316 batting average.

Freshman right hander Zak Hermans will start the first Saturday game for Princeton. Hermans has pitched into the seventh inning of each Ivy League start, with a 2.84 ERA. The rookie boasts a 3-0 record in conference play, while the rest of the Tigers’ pitching staff is just 1-8. He struck out 13 batters and only walked five during that stretch, and he was twice named Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

“[Hermans] has been amazing,” Palms said. “He’s been our most consistent starter so far. He prepares perfectly through the week, and when game time comes, he has a great approach to the game. He mixes up speeds, not necessarily blowing it by people, but he hits his spots. He puts himself and the team in great position to win.”

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Princeton will need terrific performances from Hermans and the rest of the starters to overcome a massive gap in offensive firepower. Penn’s team batting average is higher than that of any individual Tiger. But if the home team can pitch and play defense like it did earlier in the season, it may be able to move closer to a .500 and derail the postseason hopes of its rival.