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Princeton University Athletics
Baseball Departs for 11-Game Spring Break Trip
March 11, 2004 | Baseball
March 11, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team will look to build upon its perfect 3-0 start when the Tigers embark on their 11-game Spring Break road trip that begins tomorrow afternoon at Duke. The Tigers enter the weekend off of a three-game sweep of Old Dominion last weekend.
Princeton meets Duke three times over the weekend, before visiting Elon, North Carolina, North Carolina A&T and Virginia Commonwealth later in the week. The Tigers and Blue Devils square off on Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Friday's game is at 4 p.m. at Jack Coombs Field. Junior Ross Ohlendorf (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 5.0 IP) takes the mound for the Tigers against Duke's Tim Layden (1-0, 6.14 ERA, 14.2 IP). On Saturday, Princeton will start sophomore Erik Stiller (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 5.0 IP) against Duke's Zach Schreiber (2-1, 5.01 ERA, 23.1 IP) and on Sunday, Princeton freshman Gavin Fabian (0-0, 3.00 ERA, 6.0 IP) will start. Duke's starter will be announced later this week. Princeton is 5-7 all-time against Duke and went 1-3 when the two teams last met early in the 2002 season. Princeton won the first game of the series 11-9 before dropping the final three games. The teams also met three times in 2001 with the Tigers winning the opener 8-5 and dropping the other two games.
Duke is currently 8-8 this season and has one more game, Thursday afternoon at Navy, before the weekend series against Princeton. Duke has wins this season over Navy (3), Cincinnati (2) and Radford (3), and has dropped games to Elon (1), Cincinnati (1), Davidson (1), UNC-Wilmington (1), Michigan (3) and North Carolina A&T.
On Monday at 2:30 p.m., Princeton faces Elon in the sixth meeting between the two schools. Elon won the last meeting, 12-4 in 2002, bit Princeton win the previous four, including three during the 1998 season. Tentative starters for Monday's game are Princeton senior Brian Biegen (0-0, 22.50 ERA, 2.0 IP) and Elon's Matt McSwain (1-1, 1.72 ERA, 15.2 IP).
Elon is 6-9 on the season and hosts The Citadel for three games this weekend before meeting Princeton on Monday. The Phoenix won its season-opening game at Duke and has also defeated UNC-Wilmington (2) and Appalachian State (3). The team lost three games at Miami (Fla.) last weekend.
The Tigers moved to 3-0 on the season following an impressive three games against Old Dominion. The Tigers used a combination of good pitching and strong offense to overpower the Monarchs in all three games, winning by scores of 14-8, 6-1 and 9-5.
Sophomore Andrew Salini and junior B.J. Szymanski stood out offensively for Princeton as both played in all three games and are hitting over .500. Salini went 7-for-12 on the weekend, scored four runs, had a double, a triple, a home run and five RBIs, while Szymanski was 8-for-15 with five runs, one double, two triples, two home runs and eight RBIs. Senior Steve Young and junior Adam Balkan also played in all three games and are hitting above .400.
On the mound, Ohlendorf outdueled ODU's Justin Verlander as he struck out nine in five innings of work to get the win on Friday. On Saturday, Stiller tossed five innings, allowing one hit and striking out six, but freshman Eric Walz earned the win as he allowed three hits over the final four innings. On Sunday Fabian allowed eight hits in six innings and two runs, while junior Worth Lumry earned the win in relief. Junior Brian Kappel earned the save.