Tigers Clinch Gehrig Division Title with 3-1 Series Defeat of Cornell

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the Princeton baseball team. Since 1993, the formal advent of Ivy League baseball, Princeton has been arguably the most successful team, claiming the most Ivy League Championships. In 2011, the Tigers beat out Dartmouth to clinch their seventh Ivy League title. Since then, however, Princeton baseball has entered a situation resembling a drought, failing to capture its divisional title – the Gehrig Division – a single time. In both 2014 and 2015, the Tigers actually placed at the bottom of their division.

This year, however, Princeton baseball entered a revival. The past weekend, the Tigers took down Cornell in a four-game series to claim the Gehrig Division title. Claiming three out of four games, Princeton narrowly claimed the divisional title over Penn and Columbia, which has claimed the Ivy League Championship for three years in a row.

The series against Cornell was a critical one. Earlier in the season, the Tigers had dropped three out of four games against Columbia, placing them neck-to-neck with the Penn Quakers for the divisional title. In true storybook fashion, the first game against Cornell was a nail-biter, with the Tigers eking out a 4-3 win. Superb pitching from right-handed junior pitcher Chris Giglio and successful hitting won the day for Princeton. Freshman outfielder Jespen Horsted, sophomore infielder Asher Lee-Tyson and senior infielder Danny Hoy scored in the first five innings to build a 3-0 Princeton lead. The Big Red fired quickly back, however, with three runs of their own, tying the score. It was up to senior infielder Billy Arendt to score another run and clinch the game for Princeton in the eighth inning.

Princeton followed up their first victory decisively with another 6-1 triumph over Cornell later in the day. Victory came critically from the mound, as right-handed junior Chad Powers, who holds the lowest earned run average in the Ivy League, pitched eight innings and gave up only two runs. Meanwhile, Horsted led Princeton’s offensive effort, with three hits and two runs. Arendt, Hoy, freshman pitcher Joseph Flynn and junior infielder Cody Phillips contributed to Princeton’s other four runs. Clinching both games in the doubleheader, coupled with Penn’s two losses against Columbia the same weekend, won the divisional title for the triumphant Tigers.

Despite the victory, Princeton faced another doubleheader against Cornell the next day. In the first game, it was the Big Red who turned the table against the Tigers, winning a 4-3 victory. Cornell jumped out to a 3-1 lead, helped greatly by two home runs from Big Red freshman Dale Wickham. Though Princeton fought hard to bring the score within one, a continued strong performance from Cornell’s pitcher senior Michael Byrne gave the Big Red their first, and only, victory over the Tigers. Later in the afternoon, however, Princeton responded to defeat with a decisive 7-2 win over the Big Red, winning the series for the Tigers.

With their first divisional title since 2011, the Tigers next look to play the Ivy League champion from the Red Rolfe division (currently, their most likely contender will be Yale) in the Ivy League Baseball Championships. Should they win this, Princeton has a bid to the NCAA Baseball Championships. Though the Tigers have been through both times of success and travail, this season could be one to remember in Princeton baseball history.