Baseball: Ivy foes prove too much

In the end, Princeton struggled to a 6-14 record in the Ivy League, two games behind the rest of the conference. The Tigers went just 12-30 overall.

“If we were hitting the ball, we weren’t pitching or playing defense very well, and if we were pitching and playing defense, we weren’t hitting,” freshman outfielder Nate Baird said. “There were only a few games where we could put everything together.”

Princeton lost six starting position players from its 2009 Gehrig Division playoff squad, and the replacement hitters struggled at times to produce. The team batted just .263 and posted a .326 on-base percentage, both worst in the conference. In fact, four of the eight Ivy League squads had a higher batting average than anyone on the Orange and Black. The Tigers’ inexperience was displayed best by their strikeout totals: Princeton batters whiffed 358 times, 100 more than anyone else in the league.

There were some bright spots for the Tiger offense, though. Sophomore catcher Sam Mulroy led the team with a .525 slugging percentage and 31 RBIs. Mulroy’s breakout season included a particularly impressive weekend at Brown and Yale that saw the backstop hit 10 for 17 and a different seven-game stretch in which he blasted five homers.

Senior second baseman Noel Gonzales-Luna also had a breakout season, hitting .304 with only 18 strikeouts. Senior outfielder Jon Broscious, who tied for the team lead with eight home runs, and junior designated hitter Brian Berkowitz, who led the team with a .380 on-base percentage and 19 walks, also stepped up to help.

The Tigers got encouraging play from some rookies as well. Freshman first baseman John Mishu led the team with a .304 batting average and reached base safely in 11 of the final 12 games. Baird and freshman utility player Alex Flink also each hit above the team average while receiving significant playing time.

But the Princeton regulars struggled in the field. The team considered defense one of its strengths in the preseason, but the Tigers finished last in the league with 81 errors and a .947 fielding percentage. The problem became worse as the season progressed. During one particularly poor stretch in April, Princeton committed 31 errors in 11 games.

Errors were not Princeton’s only defensive problem, as Princeton allowed by far the most stolen bases (89) as well as the highest steal percentage (87 percent) in the league.

“Going into the year, we expected a lot out of our pitching staff and a lot out of our defense,” Baird said. “But we struggled more defensively than we thought we would. We had a very young team, but a lot of it also had to do with our mental focus.”

The Tigers had the league’s top pitching staff each of the previous two seasons, posting a 4.93 ERA in 2008 and a 5.08 ERA in 2009. So despite the loss of now-professional pitchers senior David Hale and Brad Gemberling ’09, Princeton still expected its rotation to be one of its strengths. But the Tiger hurlers ranked sixth in the conference this season with a 7.71 ERA, a run-and-a-half higher than the five teams they trailed. That statistic does not reflect bad luck or poor fielding: In each of the “three true outcomes” — strikeouts, walks and home runs (which are almost completely in the control of the pitcher and batter and are not influenced by factors such as fielding and positioning) — Princeton pitchers ranked second-to-last.

“As a staff, we need to have a better approach in games,” junior starter David Palms said. “Playing against metal bats is tough, but we need to keep hitters off balance, work our off-speed pitches better and hold runners on. We also need to work on our two-out approach. We let up a lot of two-out hits with runners in scoring position, which kills a team.”

No. 1 starter and potential Major League prospect Dan Barnes anchored the staff with a 5.14 ERA. Coming off an injury-shortened sophomore campaign, the righty had a few poor outings, including a six-walk performance at Santa Clara and a three-inning stint in which he allowed nine runs at Brown. But he had more than his share of highlights. Barnes allowed only two runs and pitched into the 10th inning of Princeton’s league opener against Harvard, then fanned 11 in his final start at Cornell, though the snakebit hurler failed to earn the win in either game.

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Fellow junior and No. 2 starter Palms opened the year with three terrific outings. In early-March games at Elon, UNC-Greensboro and Navy, the lefty allowed just one earned run in 19.1 innings. But Princeton’s top starter in 2009 could not work his magic in the Ivy League again. Palms allowed at least 10 hits in five of his final six starts and posted a 9.35 ERA in league play, while Princeton lost each conference game he pitched.

“I was expected to have a big year, and I just didn’t,” Palms said. “Both Dan [Barnes] and I should have had better years, and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I went through a little dead-arm phase in April and started thinking about it too much, trying to throw it by hitters instead of spotting pitches.”

Freshman starter Zak Hermans was one of Princeton’s most pleasant surprises. The righty was far from dominant during non-league play, with a 10.31 ERA through four outings. But the rookie was given the ball to start Princeton’s third conference game and delivered, throwing six shutout innings against eventual league champion Dartmouth. Hermans went 4-1 in Ivy League play, while the Tigers were 2-13 in games the rookie did not start.

Princeton opened the year with a 5-13 record in non-conference play, but the slow start had hardly worried the Tigers. They didn’t play a single non-league game north of Maryland and faced tough competition on the road, including then-No. 24 North Carolina. Princeton won just one of its first nine games, a 12-inning, 8-7 thriller at UNC-Greensboro.

But the Tigers’ pitching fueled a strong opening weekend at Clarke Field. Princeton got quality starts from all four pitchers and allowed just 12 runs in 38 innings against Harvard and Dartmouth. Its bats, however, were held to the same, resulting in a pair of splits. A two-run walk-off single by Gonzales-Luna in the 12th inning gave the hosts a dramatic 4-3 victory over Harvard. The Tigers would follow up with a 2-0 shutout against Dartmouth the next day, but they lost both nightcaps.

Princeton’s bats woke up the following weekend, but the pitching could not repeat its performance. The bullpen blew a four-run lead to lose a 12-11 heartbreaker at Brown and could not hold onto another lead in the nightcap at Yale the following day. The Tigers’ lone win of the weekend was an 8-7, seven-inning victory over the Bulldogs, which they won despite allowing four runs in the final inning and putting the winning run on base.

As the season progressed, the Tigers couldn’t find all the pieces at the right time. The pitching settled down somewhat for a pair of doubleheaders at a small Columbia park but could only come away with one win as the bats managed just 15 runs in four games. Hosting Penn the following weekend, Princeton won the first game on another walk-off thriller but allowed 54 hits in the series and lost the final three contests badly.

Princeton continued to struggle in the later innings during its final series against Cornell. Barnes threw eight innings of two-run ball in the opener, but freshman reliever Kevin Link surrendered a walk-off homer in the ninth. The nightcap was again tied at 2-2 before Cornell tagged Palms for five runs over their final three innings. Princeton managed to salvage one of the two games at home, holding onto an 8-7 victory in the first contest but falling 8-4 in the second.

The Tigers now look to reap the benefits of this year’s inexperienced team: a squad full of sophomores and juniors ready to take the next step.

“I think we’ll be much better [next season],” Baird said. “Having players coming back next year that know what to expect at this level will help a lot. The experience we got this year was key. We had so many young players, and we have a really strong recruiting class coming in, so we are optimistic for the future.”

The departures of Gonzales-Luna, Broscious and Berkowitz will leave holes in the everyday lineup. But if the Tigers can cut their miscues and if the young hitters can improve in their sophomore season, they will be a dangerous team in 2011.