Tigers’ baseball drop doubleheaders against Penn

The Princeton baseball team has now lost eight straight games and stands dead last in the Ivy League after being swept by Penn in their back-to-back doubleheaders last weekend. The Tigers are now 3-13 in the Ivy League and 6-29 overall. They are now three games behind Cornell in the Lou Gehrig Division.

It was a tough weekend for the Tigers as they lost the games by a combined score of 21-5 over four games. Penn (20-12 overall, 14-2 Ivy League) opened up every game except for the final by taking a commanding lead and never looking back. In the first game, Penn exploded offensively with three runs in the first inning, and while the Tigers tied it up with three of their own runs, Penn scored the next six to take the first game 9-3. Sophomore pitcher Chad Powers took the loss in a tough outing that highlighted the struggles the pitching staff has had this season.

The first game, while the worst game for the Tigers defensively, was also their best game offensively as they proceeded to score one run in the next two games and get shutout in the final game of the series. The Tigers managed five hits in the game on 28 at bats compared to Penn’s six hits on 29 attempts, but could not convert any of their opportunities, stranding every base-runner they had.

The sweep was indicative of the Tigers’ season as a whole, struggling to pull it together on both sides. Firmly out of contention for any league success, the Tigers will look for some out of league success Wednesday at Rider. Rider is 15-17 overall and 6-3 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Rider will play Lehigh on Tuesday before traveling to Princeton for the contest.