Four seniors graduate with one Ivy title
By: Justin Feil
The Princeton University baseball team left Houston happy to have been to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1996, but unhappy with the results.
In its tournament opener, the Tigers, seeded fourth in their regional, held a lead over the country’s ninth-ranked and No. 1 seeded regional host University of Houston for seven innings before the Cougars pulled even in the eighth, then won it on a ninth-inning home run.
In Princeton’s second game of the tournament, the Tigers stayed close to the No. 3 seed, Texas Tech, for six innings before the floodgates opened in a 10-1 loss that eliminated the 2000 Ivy League champions, who finished their season 24-20 overall.
“I know we come from an Ivy League school, but we didn’t come for moral victories,” said Jon Watterson, who led Princeton with four hits in eight at bats in the two games. “Initially, we wanted to put on a good show but after the first inning it was all about winning.”
Though the Tigers hadn’t played in 20 days, they showed no effects of the layoff as they came out swinging against Houston’s Kyle Crowell, who entered the game 12-3.
In front of 4,335 partisan Houston fans, Princeton scored a run in the first inning when shortstop Pat Boran singled home Watterson who led off the game with a double. The Tigers added three more in the second inning on three consecutive singles by second baseman Jay Mitchell, Watterson and Boran to send the ace to an early shower.
As the Tigers maintained their 4-0 lead, Chris Young took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. In the sixth inning, though, the 6-foot-10 sophomore pitcher finally ran into difficulty. He surrendered two runs on a double, but Princeton got the pair of runs back immediately in the top half of the seventh inning to re-open a four-run cushion.
But three Houston runs in their half of the seventh meant the end of the day for Young. Freshman David Boehle relieved Young and kept the Cougars off the board for the remainder of the inning. Houston scored a run in the eighth to tie the game and then J.P. Woodward homered in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to give Princeton a heartbreaking defeat.
“I thought it was a pretty good ball game. Our kids did a good job being in an environment we are not used to,” said Princeton head coach Scott Bradley. “Coming out, I thought that we played very well early on. We came out, took good swings and had good at bats. Chris was in a real good rhythm. Then, as the game went on, we had chances to get even bigger leads and couldn’t come up with the big hit. When you sit back and look at it, we didn’t get a whole lot of breaks today. I thought we played extremely well.”
The next day, less than 12 hours after their loss to the Cougars, Princeton was back on Cougar Field in front of more than 2,000 fans to face Texas Tech, a 5-2 loser to Rice in its opener.
This time, the Tigers’ offense struggled all game. It mustered just six hits off the Raiders’ Cory Metzler, and two of them were in the final inning when Princeton produced its lone run. PU catcher Casey Hildreth doubled and center fielder Mickey Martin knocked him in with his second hit of the day to avoid a shut out.
Texas Tech hit two three-run home runs to pull away from the Tigers in the final four innings. Princeton starter Jason Quintana had surrendered just two runs until the sixth inning began. The Raiders scored their first five batters to chase Quintana, a senior co-captain.
“It has been a great year and a great experience for our kids just to be out here,” Bradley said. “The regional has been a lot of fun and a great atmosphere in that it is something that we don’t have the opportunity to do very often — to play in this type of venue.”
More than 4,000 fans were on hand for Princeton’s NCAA opener and the Tigers’ strong play made them stay until the end. For Princeton’s four seniors who will graduate. Besides Quintana, the other seniors are Buster Small, who is the other co-captain, Mitchell and pitcher Jay Tedeman.
And while it was their first trip to the NCAA tournament, the rest of the Tiger team can look forward to defending its Ivy title and returning to the tournament with hopes of winning more than moral support.
“Every year, we look to the Ivy League championship as a goal,” Bradley said. “Getting to play here and in an environment like this is something of a bonus. We had a great season and have four seniors who will move on after this and we’ll come back and maybe make it to Sunday at this tournament next year.”