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Princeton University Athletics
Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
May 26, 2000 | Baseball
May 26, 2000
Box Score
HOUSTON, Texas - Princeton made its return to the NCAA tournament this evening at Cougar Field on the campus of the University of Houston. The Tigers (24-19) took on the champions of Conference USA, the host Houston Cougars (45-15). Princeton had a 6-2 lead in the top of the seventh before Houston scored five runs in the final four innings to advance into the winner's bracket with a 7-6 win. It will play Rice tomorrow afternoon. Princeton will play Texas Tech at 11 am central time tomorrow in the loser's bracket. Jason Quintana will pitch tomorrow's game for the Tigers.
Jon Watterson led off the game with a bang, poking a triple to right field on the first pitch of the game. On the very next pitch, Pat Boran hit a bloop single to center field and the 1-0 Tiger lead. Chris Young held the Cougars hitless for the bottom of the first inning before the Tigers opened up a 4-0 lead with a three-run second inning. Buster Small led off the inning with a double down the left-field line. He was hit in when Jay Mitchell singled. Watterson and Boran followed Mitchell with RBI singles of their own. With four earned runs and six hits after 1.2 innings, Houston head coach Raynor Noble was forced to take out starter Kyle Crowell. Crowell came into the game with a 12-3 record and a 2.52 ERA. He was a semifinalist for the Rotary Smith Award given to the nation's collegiate baseball player.
Crowell's replacement Nick Torina, came in the game and successfully shut the Tigers down, retiring the first 11 batters he faced. Houston started the bottom of the fifth inning with its first hit of the game, a double to left field. The next batter was retired on a sacrifice bunt. Young got the next two batters to pop up and end the Cougar threat.
Houston broke onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth inning after a walk and an infield single and a Tyson Schweitzer bases-clearing double. With the score 4-2 and a man on second, J.P Woodward hit his third warning-track fly ball of the nigh and a ground out ended the Houston sixth.
Andrew Hanson extended his hitting streak to 10 games with an RBI single in the top of the seventh. Max Krance grounded out to the first baseman to score another Princeton run in the inning to push the Tiger lead to 6-2.
Houston started the bottom of the inning with a base hit and two walks to load the bases with no outs when leadoff hitter Shane Nance hit a single to centerfield to score two runs. A bunt single loaded the bases again for the Cougars. A pop up that was dropped by Boran allowed another run to score to make the score 6-5 when Young was pulled from the game. David Boehle closed out the inning with a strikeout and a pop up.
Young left the game after throwing 6.1 innings, six hits, five earned runs, five walks and a strikeout.
"I was getting a little tired. My velocity might have fallen off just a little. I wasn't making the pitches I needed to make," Young said following the game.
In the bottom of the eighth, Houston had a man on second with two outs when Aaron Melebeck hit a slow roller to second baseman Mitchell. The batter reached on the hit, but Mitchell threw the ball away to let the runner from second score to tie the game at 6 apiece.
Boehle got the first two outs in the ninth before J.P. Woodward hit a walk-off home run to end the game.
"We just have to come back tomorrow and fight our way through the loser's bracket. It was an interesting game, but we'll be back tomorrow," head coach Scott Bradley said.