Baseball: Freshman dominating with arm and bat

At the heart of the whole movement is freshman pitcher and first baseman Mike Ford, who bats third every day while taking the mound each weekend.

Ford has been into baseball since he tagged along with his older brother Robert. He played constantly during his childhood, just a few minutes from campus in Belle Mead. A talented player on championship teams, Ford quickly caught head coach Scott Bradley’s eye.

“I’ve probably had an opportunity to watch Mike play more baseball than anybody we’ve ever recruited,” Bradley said, recalling that he first saw Ford play when Ford was 13. “I knew he was a bright young man, and I knew he was interested in Princeton a while ago.”

Ford said that coming to Princeton games was a regular childhood pastime.

“My dad and I used to go to a couple of games a year because it was free,” he said. “If it was a nice day and I didn’t have anything to do, we’d go. It was just something we would do together.”

As Ford and his teams continued to succeed, other schools noticed him too, and he got some offers from “big conference schools.” But at the end of the day, Ford decided the benefits of Princeton were too many to deny.

“I knew coming in that if I performed well in the fall, I’d be able to see time in the spring as a freshman, which was big,” Ford said. “The ultimate goal is to get to the next level in baseball, but if that doesn’t work out you have a Princeton degree, and that can take you places.”

He also enjoys being close to home — and to his mother’s chicken parmesan.

“I’m not five hours away on a plane ride,” he said. “I’m five minutes in a car, which is pretty nice.”

Ford’s impact on the team has been immediate, both offensively and defensively. The right-handed pitcher boasts a 4-0 record in conference play, posting a 1.77 ERA in five starts — tied for third in the league among starters.

The rookie, who has driven in 28 runs this season, is also second on the team with a .388 on-base percentage and ranks third in the league with 21 walks.

“We haven’t had a hitter like Mike in quite some time,” Bradley said. “To have someone like Mike in the middle of the lineup, where every time he comes up he makes the pitcher have to work, is very important to the lineup.”

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“I’m really confident in my hands, and I can let the ball travel pretty deep,” Ford said, explaining his success. “I want the pitcher to work to get me out.”

Despite his tangible successes on the mound and in the batter’s box, Ford’s greatest contribution to the squad might be the self-assurance that comes with years of playing baseball at its highest youth levels.

This confidence has been crucial to the team’s success in spite of its relative inexperience.

“He’s experienced a lot of high-level baseball,” Bradley said. “He just has this confidence about him that makes everyone else confident as well.”

Off the field, Ford plans to concentrate in economics or politics and is an avowed “beach bum.”

“In the summers I have a beach house, and that’s my favorite place in the world to go to,” Ford said. “Whenever I get the chance, if I have a week off here or a week off there I get down there and just kind of relax.”

“My dad and I go fishing a lot down at the beach, and that’s one of our favorite things to do,” he continued. “So I’m either fishing or just laying on the beach.”

With the title series just days away, Ford said he hopes to soak up the sun as an Ivy League champion this summer. Whatever happens against Dartmouth, however, Ford and most of his teammates will be wearing orange and black for a few more years.