Swept by Yale, baseball continues skid

Baseball lost to Yale (20–17 overall, 14–4 Ivy) in all three games last weekend, its last at home.

The series sweep ended a bruising stretch for the Tigers in which they played nine games in nine days, with series against Columbia, Harvard, and Yale. Princeton went just 2–7 during that stretch, dropping the final six games.

On a sunny Saturday morning, the Tigers (10–23, 7–11) fell to the Bulldogs 2–1. Yale scored at the top of the fourth inning for the first run of the game. Junior Joseph Flynn’s ground ball earned Princeton its first run at the bottom of the sixth. The Tigers’ defeat was sealed after Yale’s Griffin Day hit one over the fence at top of the seventh inning to give the Bulldogs a one-run lead they would not relinquish. Princeton senior Ben Gross pitched seven innings and struck out eight batters, and sophomore pitcher Eli Kimbell struck out six hitters in two innings.

In the afternoon, Princeton lost 6–0 in the second game of the double header. Despite hits from junior Jesper Horsted and a stellar performance from sophomore pitcher James Proctor, the Tigers were unable to put any runs on the scoreboard, losing to Yale by six.

On Sunday, the team was unable to make a comeback from the previous day’s shortcomings, losing to Yale 8–3 in its last home game of the season. Senior Asher Lee-Tyson hit one to left field in the bottom of the first inning, earning the Tigers their first run. Yale scored one in the top of the third. Sophomore Conor Nolan responded with a home run in the bottom of the third, scoring two runs for Princeton. Yale would go on to score eight and win the game.

Last weekend’s disappointing results put Princeton near the bottom of the table: seventh place in the Ivy League, in front of just Brown (10–24, 5–13). The Tigers are now mathematically eliminated from a spot in the Ivy League Championship Series, where the top two teams in the conference play for the title. Yale currently has fourteen wins and Harvard (20–19, 10–8) has eleven. Even if Princeton won all of its remaining games in the conference, the maximum possible number of wins would be 10.

The Tigers have won three and lost three of the three-game series played against each conference opponent. Princeton bested Cornell (11–18–1, 6–9), Brown, and Columbia (16–24, 11–7) this season, while falling to Penn (13–24–1, 7–10–1), Harvard, and Yale.

The Tigers do have a chance, however, of surpassing their seven conference wins from last season.

On Thursday afternoon the Tigers will head to nearby Monmouth University 19–20 overall, 9–6 conf.) for a friendly game against the Hawks. Last year, Princeton lost 4–8 at Monmouth. The year before that, the Tigers lost 3–7 at home. Should the Tigers win this Thursday’s game, they will break their four-year losing streak against the Hawks.

This weekend Princeton will head to Hanover, N.H., to play its last games of the season against conference foe Dartmouth (12–20–1, 8–6–1). Last year, the Tigers won one 4–2 and lost one 6–7 against the Big Green in Hanover. The year before that, Baseball hosted Dartmouth at Clarke Field, where they won the first 2–1 and in the second clutched the win in the 10th inning 9–8.