.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Down and Out
May 26, 2001 | Baseball
May 26, 2001
Box Score
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Princeton was eliminated by NCAA regional tournament host South Carolina in an 11-7 loss Saturday night. The Tigers were fresh off an 11-6 afternoon win over The Citadel that gave Princeton its first NCAA tournament win since 1965. The Gamecocks were facing Princeton just more than an hour after their 8-6 loss to Central Florida.
Things looked good for the Tigers early on. Princeton starting pitcher Mark Siano, making his second career start, retired nine straight batters on 26 pitches through the first three innings, but South Carolina rattled Siano in the fourth inning scoring three runs on four straight hits.
Mickey Martin and Sean McNally each drove in a run in the first inning on consecutive base hits for a 2-0 lead that carried through the fourth inning. Freshman Eric Fitzgerald crushed a three-run home run over the rightfield wall in the bottom of fourth, his first career homer that put Princeton back on top 5-3. Bill Broome entered the game in the fifth inning after Siano gave up two hits to start the inning. South Carolina shortstop Drew Meyer drove in a run with a base hit and another run scored on a double-play ball to tie the game 5-5 before the inning ended.
With two outs in the fifth, Martin hit his third home run of the year to put Princeton back on top 6-5. Martin went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
An error by Andrew Hanson allowed the second of two runs to score in the top of the sixth inning for South Carolina. Tim Phillips led off the bottom of the inning with a double and tied the game 7-7 on a groundout by Jon Watterson. Tim Whittaker scored the winning run for the Gamecocks with his 20th home run of the season in the top of the seventh. The Tigers allowed three more runs, two of them unearned, over the next two innings and committed three more errors.
"This has been a great experience and I don't think I have to tell anyone anymore that we can play baseball," said head coach Scott Bradley. "We went toe-to-toe with South Carolina and I think we got a little tired at the end because we don't usually make five errors. I would have left disappointed had we not had a chance to play South Carolina in this atmosphere. We had a lot of fun and I couldn't have asked anymore of our guys. People will leave here with a little better understanding of what Princeton baseball is all about."