Baseball: Bears, Bulldogs visit for home openers

As in prior years, the Tigers started off struggling at the plate, with a batting average of .181 through the fifth game of the season against Holy Cross. Recently, though, the team has found greater success at the plate, upping their average to a .241 clip through Wednesday’s game at Seton Hall.

“We’ve had the same trend in the past where we struggle to hit the ball and score runs earlier on in the season, while by the end of the pre-Ivy season we begin to heat up,” sophomore outfielder Nate Baird said. “It could be a result from not being able to play full-on games outdoors during the winter or our tough pre-Ivy schedule, but it’s not something we should really worry about too much.”

The Tigers’ last game was a thrilling contest, a 2-1 victory in 10 innings over New Jersey neighbor Seton Hall in which four Princeton pitchers combined to allow just two hits to the Pirates. Senior Matt Grabowski began the game with three scoreless innings, an effort fellow senior pitcher David Palms equaled.

Princeton scored in the seventh inning when sophomore infielder Alex Flink’s pinch-hit double drove home freshman designated hitter Ryan Albert, but Seton Hall second baseman Mike Genovese drove in the tying run in the bottom half of the eighth. The Tigers, who had numerous scoring opportunities throughout the afternoon, broke through again in the top half of the 10th, thanks to a string of singles by sophomore shortstop Matt Bowman, freshman first baseman Mike Ford and Baird.

With the Saturday doubleheader against Brown, the Tigers transition from playing a team in the Big East conference to beginning their Ivy League play.

“We are not looking back at last year or any previous years as we go into this weekend,” Baird said. “Brown, like us, is entering the Ivy League not having won many games, and they have also played against some really tough competition in the first half of the season [including No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 8 Texas]. They played tough series against both those teams and even took a win from Texas, so we can’t be fooled by their record.”

“We have to play tough, mistake-free baseball and we need to score early and consistently throughout the game instead of waiting for the fourth or fifth inning to try to get a rally going in order to have success this weekend,” Baird added.

Junior pitcher Ryan Makis echoed Baird’s sentiments.

“Brown has a very good ball club,” Makis said. “They played Vanderbilt close and they took one of four from Texas. We will definitely not take them lightly. I believe if we pitch, hit and field at the level which we are capable, we can beat anyone in the Ivy League. The bottom line is that we need to execute no matter what color jersey is in the other dugout.”

Princeton opened its Ivy League slate in dramatic fashion last season, defeating Harvard 4-3 in 12 innings. The Tigers lost the second game to the Crimson and split with eventual league champion Dartmouth the following day, a weekend in which none of the four games were decided by more than two runs.

The Tigers’ season went downhill after that, however, as they won just four of their final 16 league games. But with a young team, they hope to have more success this season.

“Other than the occasional mechanical tweaks of players’ swings, our coaching staff is really emphasizing the importance of us being aggressive at the plate, especially with two strikes,” Baird said. “As a team, we’ve struck out looking way too many times this year, so our coaching staff is working to get us to improve both our plate discipline as well as our mental approach to each at bat.”

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Last season’s doubleheader against Brown resulted in a disappointing sweep, 17-4 and 12-11. This year, the Tigers can start off Ivy League play with last year’s losses in the rear window and play in the manner of their victory over Seton Hall.