Baseball: Extra-inning defeat ends Tigers’ 9-game win streak

The Tigers (12-15 overall, 6-2 Ivy League) drove to Cambridge fresh off consecutive doubleheader sweeps of Brown and Yale to open the Ivy League season, followed by a non-league 11-8 victory over Rutgers on Tuesday night. Princeton scored a combined 32 runs in its four victories over the Bears and the Bulldogs but could not gather offensive momentum on the road this weekend, scoring just 11 runs while going 2-2.

Sophomore starting pitcher Matt Bowman gave Princeton a strong outing in Saturday’s first game against Harvard (4-24, 1-7), lasting all seven innings while giving up three runs, just two of them earned. After retiring the side in order in the bottom of the first, Bowman allowed a leadoff single in the second, and Harvard designated hitter Marcus Way — who leads his team with five home runs, 17 RBIs and a .506 slugging percentage — followed with a two-run homer to right field.

In the fourth, after Harvard shortstop Sean O’Hara reached on an error, it was Way once again who drove home the run, this time with a double to left-center field. Bowman settled down after that, allowing no base runners and striking out three in the remaining three innings.

In the meantime, despite Bowman’s impressive performance on the mound, the Princeton bats could not get a rally going against Harvard starter Eric Eadington, who struck out six while scattering three hits over the first six innings. But with one out in the top of the seventh, freshman first baseman Mike Ford doubled and then scored the Tigers’ first run of the game on sophomore left fielder Nate Baird’s single.

After two more consecutive hits, Princeton had tied the game. With two outs and the bases loaded, sophomore outfielder John Mishu connected for a double to center field, giving the Tigers the go-ahead runs they needed to solidify the 5-3 victory.

Though the offense was still relatively quiet in the second game, sophomore starter Zak Hermans led the Tigers to a 1-1 tie through six innings. At the top of the seventh inning, Bowman drove home freshman catcher Bobby Geren with a single for the go-ahead run and then scored the insurance run on junior catcher Sam Mulroy’s double. Hermans pitched a complete game — a rare feat for a nine-inning nightcap — striking out seven and allowing just five hits.

After traveling up to Dartmouth (17-6, 6-2), the team played its first game on Sunday against the defending Ivy League champions. The game which lasted 10 innings, three over regulation. Though Ford had a strong start, striking out six and giving up just six hits over eight and two-thirds innings, the Princeton fielders could not back him up, as five errors led to three unearned runs in the first nine innings.

The batters made up for it, as Ford helped himself with a solo home run in the second and freshman left fielder Alec Keller and sophomore first baseman Steve Harrington each drove in a run to help Princeton take the lead in the eighth.

But with the score tied at three in the bottom of the 10th, senior relief pitcher David Palms — who had entered for Ford with two outs in the ninth and retired the side — gave up three one-out walks to load the bases. Third baseman Jeff Onstott followed with a walk-off single to give the Big Green a 4-3 win.

The second game of the doubleheader was not quite as suspenseful, as Dartmouth knocked around senior pitcher Matt Grabowski for three runs in the first inning. Though they brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers never caught up and conceded a 5-2 loss to the Big Green.

Princeton has already equaled its conference win total from last season with more than half the schedule remaining. The Tigers play division co-leader Penn in a four-game road series next weekend.