Pitching gems send all-stars on
By: Bob Nuse
These are good times for the Princeton Little League 12-year-old all-star team.
On Monday night, Princeton won its second straight game in District 12 play when Rohit Chawla tossed a two-hitter in a 3-1 win over Chambersburg. The next night, the whole Princeton team showed up at R.J. Ward Field in West Windsor, where a Florence win over Cranbury-Plainsboro assured Princeton of a spot in the District 12 Final Nine.
"This is just great for our kids," said Princeton manager Billy Ray, whose team finished 2-2 in Pool B and earned the pool’s third spot in the Final Nine after watching Florence beat C-P. "They all came out here tonight and watched to see what would happen. They’re feeling real good about themselves right now. The Sunnybrae game (a 2-1 win on Sunday) was the one. That was the game that showed the kids what they could do. We were playing one of the traditional powerhouses. They took us for granted and paid the price for it."
And now Princeton finds itself in the Final Nine for the second time in the last four years. Princeton was scheduled to open play on Thursday night at Lawrence against Florence, a team that handed Princeton an 11-2 loss in pool play.
"We want to play the best," said Ray, whose team is seeded ninth in the nine-team double-elimination event. "I have a lot of confidence in my pitching right now. It doesn’t bother me who we play. We want to play the best teams."
After beating Chambersburg on Monday, all Princeton needed to advance was for Cranbury-Plainsboro to allow at least two runs against Florence.
"Today we were comfortable because even after those two losses, we came back and didn’t give up any runs," Ray said. "We gave up one run each game the last two games. That was huge. Rohit pitched a gem for us against Chambersburg. And Mike (Dunlap) pitched a great game against Sunnybrae the day before."
In the win on Monday, Chawla allowed just one unearned run and struck out nine in six innings. Still, Princeton needed a three-run fifth inning to pull out the win. Will Greenberg, Alex Kim and Chawla each drove in a run, scoring Will Ezekowitz, Ellis Bloom and Greenberg with the runs.
The win came just one day after a 2-1 upset-win at Sunnybrae made the trip to the Final Nine a possibility.
"The best thing about Sunnybrae, I’ll never forget getting booed the second time I came out to talk to my kids on the mound in that last inning," Ray said. "That was the best feeling I’ve had. This means we’re doing OK now.
"We’ve been having a lot of fun. The kids have had a lot of parties and they’re really enjoying themselves."
And they’d enjoy themselves even more if they could win a few games at the Final Nine. The pitching has been there the last two games, now Ray would like to see the offense kick into gear.
"The biggest thing for us is we have to get our hitting going," the Princeton manager said. "We haven’t scored a lot of runs. We’ve had great pitching the last two games. Now we need to get the bats going. We’re coming together and playing real smooth. The outfield is getting used to playing out there and getting better and better defensively."
Princeton was scheduled to play Florence on Thursday night. With a win, it would come right back to face top-seeded Washington Township tonight at 8 p.m. With a loss on Thursday, Princeton would fall into the losers’ bracket, where it would play Saturday at 3 p.m. against the loser of the game between Ewing and Millstone-Roosevelt.
The entire Final Nine will be played at Lawrence Little League’s Hughes Field, which is located off Eggerts Crossing Road.

