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Princeton University Athletics
Baseball Team's Magic Number Now One
April 24, 2000 | Baseball
April 24, 2000
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. - It took a little bit of drama, but the Princeton baseball team is within one game of winning its fifth consecutive Gehrig Division crown. The Tigers got a complete game masterpiece from Chris Young (So., Dallas, Texas) in the first game to win 7-1 and a walk-off single by Jon Watterson (Jr., Keene, N.H.) to win the second game 6-5 over Penn (18-18, 7-9 Ivy League). Cornell took three of four games from Columbia this weekend and is now four games behind the Tigers in the division race. Princeton (19-14, 12-4 Ivy League) needs only one win over the Big Red to clinch.
Young struck out a career-high tying 10 batters in the first game to move to 3-0 on the season. He gave up only one unearned run all day and walked only two. His ERA is now 0.67 on the season. Casey Hildreth (Jr., Westfield, Mass.) was hit by a pitch to start off the second inning and advanced to third on a double by Max Krance (Jr., South Nyack, N.Y.). Buster Small (Sr., Alpharetta, Ga.) singled to left to score Hildreth and advance Krance to third. Mickey Martin (Jr., Bridgewater, N.J.) singled in Krance and Tim Phillips (Jr., Audubon, Pa.) hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Small.
That was all the support Young would need. Krance hit a two-run home run to deep right field to give Princeton a 5-0 cushion. Penn scored its unearned run in the top of the fourth, but Princeton came back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth for the final tally.
Krance ended Game 1 going 2 for 3 with two runs and two RBIs. Martin was 3 for 3 with an RBI. Andrew Hanson (Jr., Cumberland, Maine), who had an RBI double in the fourth, was 1 for 4 with an RBI.
Princeton jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the third inning of the second game on RBI singles by Martin and Sean McNally (Jr., Jersey City, N.J.) another run scored in the inning on a throwing error by the right fielder. Jay Mitchell (Sr., Canton, Mass.) singled in the fifth inning to score Hildreth to give Princeton a 4-1 lead.
Penn got an RBI triple, an RBI double and two RBI singles to take a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning. It was Penn's first lead in the series since the second inning of Game 1. Shortstop Glen Ambrisious hit the final single of the inning for the Quakers to give Penn the lead. It also gave him 171 hits for his career making him the all-time hits leader at the school, Princeton pitchers had held him hitless in the prior three games of the series.
Princeton held Penn scoreless for the final two innings to set up Watterson's heroics. Krance led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a ground out to the first baseman. Hildreth was then hit by a pitch and Martin fouled out to the catcher on the first pitch. Ryan Achterberg (So., Corona del Mar, Calif.) singled through the left side to put men on first and second with two outs. McNally walked to load the bases and Mitchell followed that up with a walk and the tying RBI. Watterson singled off the left center wall for the game-winning hit.
Not to be outdone by Watterson's game-winner, Hildreth set a new Princeton record by being hit by a pitch four times in one game. Add that to the one time he was hit in the first game of today's double dip, Hildreth was hit a total of five times today. He erases fellow catcher Buster Small, who was hit three times last week in a game at Columbia, from the recordbook.
Martin was 2 for 5 in the second game with an RBI and a run, Achterberg also had two hits. David Boehle (Fr., Redwood City, Calif.) evened his record at 2-2 with the win in one inning of work.