Princeton baseball (21–18 overall, 12–6 Ivy League) punched their ticket to the Ivy League tournament after taking two of three games this past weekend against Yale (16–21, 9–9). Tigers pitching dominated against the Yale Bulldogs, as Princeton recorded their first no-hitter since April of 2008.
Friday’s opener featured a complete game shutout by junior pitcher Tom Chmielewski, his second shutout of the season. Chmielewski struck out 10 in Princeton’s victory, retiring nine straight hitters through the first four innings and striking out the side to end the ninth. Yale’s outfielder Alec Atkinson ended Chmielewski’s no-hitter with a single in the sixth. Overall, Chmieleski successfully limited Yale to five hits and no walks, dropping his earned-run-average (ERA) to 2.93.
Princeton’s offense supported Chmielewski in the victory, with junior left-fielder Matt Scannell firing up the Tigers in the first inning with a leadoff home run. Senior center fielder Brendan Cumming and senior second-baseman Noah Granet led the offense with three hits apiece, and the Tigers recorded a total of 12 hits and eight runs to secure the win, 8–0.
Princeton’s pitching continued to shine in Friday’s evening game with three pitchers, senior Jackson Emus, sophomore Jacob Faulkner, and freshman Justin Kim, combining to produce the fifteenth no-hitter in Princeton’s program history. This dynamic trio recorded 12 strikeouts throughout the game.
Emus had his best outing of the season with nine strikeouts in almost seven innings. Faulkner had 1-2-3 innings in the eighth, while Kim caught the Bulldogs’ senior designated hitter Dylan Kim whiffing for the final out of the game.
The Tigers had an explosive offensive display yet again, scoring four runs on a two-out rally in the fourth inning. Junior third baseman Nick DiPietrantonio hit a double down the left field line to score two, and sophomore outfielder Caden Shapiro brought DiPietrantonio in with an RBI double. Shapiro would also cross the plate after an RBI single by Granet, extending Princeton’s lead to 4–0.
Princeton would tack on four more runs in the next few innings to take a commanding eight run advantage, with the Bulldogs scoring their sole run off a sacrifice fly by first-year Davis Hanson in the sixth inning. Princeton would ultimately come away with the win, 9–1.
The third game of the series was less successful for the Tigers as they dropped a narrow game to the Bulldogs, 6–7.
“We made several costly errors and just could not come up with big hits, leaving 13 runners on base,” head coach Scott Bradley wrote to the Daily Princetonian.
Yale opened the scoring on a passed ball in the first inning, picking up another two runs after an error in the third inning. Princeton evened the score at 3–3 in the top of the fourth inning with RBI singles by Shapiro and Granet, but the Bulldogs claimed the lead again in the bottom of the fourth after a two-run double by senior centerfielder AJ Gaich.
Scoring became tight in the sixth inning when the Tigers tied it up again at 6–6 with two bases-loaded walks and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. However, Yale’s outfielder Ben Metzner came up big for the Bulldogs with a go-ahead single in the eighth to put away the game for good.
With this series win against Yale, Princeton continues to gain momentum as they look toward the postseason. The Tigers stand at third in the Ivy League conference, behind Penn (25–14, 13–5) and Harvard (17–21, 13–5). The Tigers will play at Rutgers (26–18, 8–7 Big Ten) this Wednesday before their final regular season series against Brown (10–24, 7–11).
“We still have a chance to win the Ivy League title as well as host the Ivy League tournament,” said Bradley. “To accomplish this goal, we need to win all three games against Brown and get a little help in other games around the league.”
Sarina Sheth is a contributor to the Sports section at the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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