Chernoff, Tiger seniors go 3 for 4 in crowns
By: Justin Feil
Mike Chernoff went to bed Saturday night dreaming of an Ivy League baseball title, and woke up on the bottom of a pile celebrating his third championship in four years Sunday afternoon.
"I got up real early today and I was thinking about all the possibilities," said Chernoff, a Princeton University senior. "This is unbelievable."
One of the smallest guys on the Tiger lineup, the 5-foot-9 Chernoff played a big hand in helping the Tigers beat Harvard, 5-2, Sunday to win the best-of-three series at Clarke Field, 2-1. The Tigers also won the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, 5-2, before losing the second game, 4-3, to set up Sunday’s game for the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"We set out at the beginning of the year with the goal to get in this game," said Chernoff, who was 4-for-11 in the Ivy League Championship series. "Things came together throughout the year. We were hoping to do it (Saturday). Coming into (Sunday), everyone’s nerves were tight, intensity was high. We got a great performance out of Thomas to win."
All Thomas Pauly did in his third collegiate career start was go the full nine innings, allowed four hits only one after the second inning and struck out 10, all less than 24 hours after going 2Ð innings for the save in Game 1 Saturday.
"The kid’s amazing," said PU head coach Scott Bradley, whose squad improved to 27-21, the second most wins in program history. "He deserved the right to be out there. A few things went haywire in the beginning to give them a couple runs. To regain everything back and to pitch and finish like he did was phenomenal."
Harvard put a man on in the second inning before Princeton’s Andy Salini misjudged a hit to right field that went for an RBI double. That was followed by an RBI single up the middle to give the Crimson a 2-0 lead after two innings. But Pauly was hardly touched after that, and Princeton rallied in the third inning with a Jon Miller bloop RBI single and a Ryan Eldridge sacrifice fly to even things, 2-2.
In the fourth inning, Chernoff came to the plate after a lead-off double to the fence by Tim Lahey and a groundout and delivered the game-winning single.
"I just got up there thinking that this could be the last baseball game I play," Chernoff said. "There was a guy on second, and I wanted to score him. Things worked out for us."
Chernoff and Eric Fitzgerald, who laid down a perfect bunt to reach base, then scored without the ball leaving the infield when B.J. Szymanski beat out a wicked-hop single to first base and the two Tigers alertly and aggressively challenged Harvard’s infield.
"Mike’s was a huge hit," Bradley said. "That gave us the lead. We didn’t advance the baserunner (with a sacrifice bunt on the first attempt). We had hoped to get him over, so it was a key, key hit in terms of getting momentum. They got a break to get two runs, and we got some breaks to go our way."
The rest was up to Pauly and the defense. Chernoff helped the junior right-hander out of his most serious threat after the second inning. In the seventh, two walks had Harvard runners at first and second with one out before a grounder to Chernoff started an inning-ending double play.
"After he pitched yesterday, coming back on zero days rest, he gave an unbelievable start," Chernoff said. "We stuck with Thomas and he got the job done. We knew Thomas could come up with something like that (double-play ball)."
Chernoff’s slick fielding didn’t hurt. He made just one error all series. Sunday, he forced a runner out at third on a rundown in the third inning and Saturday threw a runner out at the plate with a drawn-in infield in Game 2. It’s all proof that it’s been a seamless transition he made after playing most of his Princeton career at second base.
"I had been mixing in some short’ and second so it wasn’t that big a transition," said Chernoff, who’s .943 fielding average is better than graduated four-year starter Pat Boran’s was last season. "And that’s what the spring trip is about. The biggest move was made by (another senior) Jon Miller. He came in as a catcher and worked at third base and filled a big hole for us. He was just great."
In all, the Tigers have seven seniors, and their experience should help as they return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2001.
"We’re hoping to do some damage," said Chernoff, who also drove in the Tigers’ first run in the Game 1 win. "We want to show everyone what we’re made of. I think we have a great senior corps. We had that two years ago. We have a team where our pitching is good enough (to win).
"Our goal was to get there. Now we got there. It’s fun from here on out."
It will be the Tigers’ eighth trip to the NCAA tournament and its third in four years. Princeton will learn what regional it will play in when the brackets are announced May 26.
Then the dreaming starts all over.

