Baseball kicks off Ivy League play, drops two of three to Dartmouth

Princeton Baseball (4–13 overall, 1–2 Ivy League) kicked off its Ivy League season last weekend with a two-day, three-game series against Dartmouth (8–11, 2–1) at Rutgers University’s Bainton Field. The Tigers fell 23–3 and 10–8 in Saturday’s doubleheader, but pulled together to defeat Dartmouth 8–2 in the Sunday finale.

Though the Tigers walked away from the weekend with a lone win, its performances during the last two games bode well for the rest of the season.

The Tigers mounted a strong showing for most of Saturday afternoon’s second game. After jumping ahead 2–1 in the first inning, they led for the next seven. The ninth inning opened with the Tigers up 6–5. It was all downhill from there.

The Big Green put up five in the top of the ninth. In response, the Princeton offense did its best to put on a show. Sophomore infielder Jake Boone — who led his team with four hits and three runs — and freshman outfielder Nadir Lewis scored two final points. But the Tigers just couldn’t come back. The game ended in a 10–8 victory for Dartmouth.

The Princeton players were able to produce another eight runs on Sunday afternoon — this time, to back up a masterful performance on the mound by junior pitcher Andrew Gnazzo. Gnazzo allowed only two runs across eight innings of work, setting a career high with eleven strikeouts along the way.

He led Princeton to its first Ivy League victory of the season in the 8-2 win over Dartmouth.

Senior center fielder Max West drove in four out of the eight runs for Princeton, and Lewis led the Tigers with three hits to go along with two runs scored.

The Dartmouth games took up the final weekend of Princeton’s spring break. In the week prior to the series, Princeton had played in a total of seven games: two games against Old Dominion (16–8) in Norfolk, Virginia, one with the University of Richmond (11–8–1) in Richmond, Virginia, and a four-game series split with Georgetown University (6–19) in Washington, D.C.

Though Princeton only managed to win two of the seven games, the vacation highlighted some positives for the team. After only managing to scratch across three runs over the course of the three Virginia games, the Tigers’ nineteen runs against Dartmouth were definitely reassuring.

Next weekend, Princeton will continue to play in the Ivy League. The Tigers will head to Cambridge, Massachusetts next weekend to take on Harvard (11–5, 2–1) for a three-game set. There, they will be looking for some revenge after getting swept by the Crimson in a three-game series at home last season. The following weekend, Princeton will play on Bill Clarke Field for the first time this season, matching up against reigning Ivy League Champion Columbia (6–11, 2–1).