Pitching is key for Tigers against Columbia
By: Bob Nuse
In one weekend, the Princeton University baseball team made up for an awful lot of frustration.
As the Tigers entered a four-game weekend series with Columbia, they were just 1-7 in the Ivy League and 5-19-1 overall. But of those 19 losses, 13 have come by three runs or less. So, while the record may not have looked good, the Tigers’ play had not been all that bad.
This past weekend, Princeton took out some of its frustration on Columbia, winning four straight games by a combined 33-5 score and posting a pair of shutouts.
"It was a great weekend for us and a real confidence builder," said Princeton coach Scott Bradley, whose team will play at Seton Hall today at 3:30 p.m. "We had lost a lot of real tough games. Even with our record as poor as it has been, when you look at all the close games we’ve had we’re not that far away from having a much better record.
"You hope that a weekend like the one we just had will get you off and rolling. It was certainly great for our confidence to go out and win four games the way we did."
Princeton opened the weekend with an 8-0 win on Saturday, then came back to win 6-3 in 11 innings to earn a doubleheader sweep. On Sunday, Princeton again opened the doubleheader with an 8-0 win, then took the second game, 11-2.
Eric Stiller tossed a six-hit shutout in the opening game of Saturday’s doubleheader, receiving all the offense he needed from Adrian Turnham, who had four hits and drove in three runs. In the second game, the Tigers broke a scoreless tie with six runs in the top of the 11th and then held on for the win. Eric Walz pitched 10 innings of shutout ball for the Tigers to get the win.
On Sunday, Michael Zarat tossed six shutout innings and struck out 10 in the opener. In the second game, Christian Steahley allowed just two runs over the first seven innings to pick up the win for the Tigers. In four games over the weekend, Princeton’s four starting pitchers allowed just two runs in 30 innings.
With the four-game sweep, Princeton is now 5-7 in the Gehrig Division and holds a one-game lead over Cornell, which is 4-8, with eight games left to play. Penn is 5-11 with four games left, while Columbia is 4-12.
Princeton will host Penn in a pair of doubleheaders this weekend, while Cornell will host Columbia. The Tigers and Big Red conclude the Ivy season against each other the final weekend of the season, with two games at Cornell and then final two at Princeton.
"This was a good weekend for us," Bradley said. "We pitched well and hopefully we can carry this into a big weekend series with Penn."

