Baseball loses close games to Yale, shatters records against Brown

Riding a successful streak of Ivy League wins, Princeton baseball traveled to New Haven and Providence this weekend with high hopes. In the end, the team emerged with two tight losses to Yale and two record-breaking wins over Brown. In particular, the offensively dominant Tigers scored 25 runs, including eight runs batted in from junior firstbaseman Zack Belski.

Currently sitting atop the Lou Gehrig Division of the Ivy League, Princeton has shown great improvement this season. The team’s success has translated into confidence; as senior catcher Andrew Christie said, for “every Ivy League game we’re expecting to win going in.”

At the same time, Princeton baseball has also historically struggled against Yale. In fact, the Tigers last beat the Bulldogs in 2013. By the end of Friday, the team’s confidence would prove insufficient to take down the Bulldogs, with the Tigers falling 6-3 in the first game and then 6-1 in the second.

In both games against Yale, Princeton struggled to generate offense. The combination of Bulldog pitchers Scott Politz and Chasen Ford kept the Tigers to just 10 hits over both games. As Christie noted, “We couldn’t get anything going off their pitcher.”

Princeton’s deep pitching staff deserves equal credit. With senior Luke Strieber commanding the mound in the first game and junior Chad Powers in the second, the duo kept the Bulldogs to just 13 hits. In fact, in the second game, the score remained stagnant at 2-1 until the bottom of the eighth when the Bulldogs scored four runs off of two hits.

Reflecting on the close and regrettable losses, Christie offered a few lessons, explaining that the team made a few key mental errors in the first game and needs to be more competitive in the future.

On Sunday, any persistent doubts over the Tigers’ offense evaporated. In the first inning alone, Princeton’s run total equaled that for both Yale games combined. By the top of the second, the Tigers had accumulated an impressive 8-1 lead over the Bears. Brown would incrementally chip at the Princeton lead for the remaining five innings; however, the Orange and Black defense managed to preserve an 11-9 victory for the Tigers.

Sunday’s 11 total runs propelled the matchup into the ranks of the top scoring games of the season, but the second matchup shattered all previous expectations, with 25 runs scored. Belski and senior co-captain Billy Arendt led the force with eight and five runs batted in, respectively.

In fact, the 25 total runs on Sunday were the most runs the team has scored since 1992. Even more impressively, Belski’s eight runs batted in set a new Princeton school record, which stood for 84 years.

Similar to the earlier game against the Bears, the Tigers jumped to an early lead at the start of the second game. In the second inning the Tigers scored eight runs, but did not stop there. For the remaining of the game, the Tigers added to their record, including a remarkable six run final inning.

Explaining the record-breaking game on Sunday, Christie cited the rest that the team received on Saturday. Unlike most weekends, the team played their first matchup on Friday, providing time for rest on Saturday. Christie explained that it “was a nice change of pace.”

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Looking ahead, the Tigers are preparing for difficult games against Penn, Columbia and Cornell. However, Princeton has reason to be optimistic given its competitive Ivy League performance thus far. Christie added that the team has been working to combine consistent hitting and defense with an already deep pitching squad. The senior added that if the team does succeed, Princeton “will be a hard team to beat.”