Princeton lose series to LSU

The Princeton baseball men’s team had its work cut out for it this weekend as it opened its season against the fourthranked Louisiana State Tigers down in Baton Rouge. While fighting hard, Princeton would be unable to obtain a win in this opening series, falling to LSU 0-3.

Most of the weekend was much closer than the above score shows. In the first game, the only one playedon Friday, the battle between the Tigers ended up a slim 3-2 loss for Princeton. Sophomore pitcher Chad Powers made a strong debut as he struck out three LSU players while allowing for just two hits over five innings. Indeed, of LSU’s three runs scored, only one was an earned run — the other two came from Princeton’s fielding errors. Powers’ relief pitchers, senior Nick Donatiello and junior Chris Bodurian, also allowed for two hits over three innings pitched combined.

On the offensive side, Princeton would out-hit LSU 6-4, as sophomores Cody Phillips and Zach Belski, juniors Danny Hoy and Billy Arendt and senior Peter Owens would all get on the board. Belski’s single in particular would help bring Hoy to home, which would cut a then deficit of 2-0 in half. While LSU would get the run back and push it to 3-1, Belski would belt-ski a home run, the fourth of his career, at the top of the sixth inning to bring Princeton ever closer. While Princeton would breathe down LSU’s neck for the rest of the game, coming tantalizingly close to scoring in the seventh in particular, they would make no further progress in this game.

The next two games would see a fair amount of ups and downs. In game two, Princeton managed to grab a lead after going behind early 1-0. Powers would make an impact yet again as he got two runs batted in off a single in the bottom of the second to bring home sophomores Nick Hernandez and Paul Tupper. After going up 2-1, Princeton would be unable to score a run for the rest of the game. After falling behind, LSU would rip off four runs in the bottom of the second inning and would never look back.

The results were mixed between Princeton’s pitchers. Junior Luke Strieber, the starting pitcher for the game, gave up five runs (four earned) on three hits. Junior Cameron Mingo, one of the two relief pitchers, gave up two runs himself in three innings pitched. Senior Tyler Foote, the other relief pitcher, would fare the best of the men on the mound, allowing no runs scored in his three innings pitched.

The final game of the series would prove by far the roughest for Princeton. LSU would win the game 15-4, with Princeton managing to avoid a shutout by scoring its four runs in its final inning. Sophomore Keelan Smithers was the starting pitcher for the game, with freshmen Nick Brady and Kevin Thomsen and sophomore Chris Giglio as his relievers. Baer, Hoy, Phillips and Owens would score the runs for Princeton in this one.

With LSU behind them, Princeton now looks toward next weekend’s series against University of North Carolina at Greensboro, another battle on the road.