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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Duke
Young, Pitching Lead Baseball to 13-1 Win at Duke
March 13, 2004 | Baseball
March 13, 2004
Box Score
Durham, N.C. - The Princeton baseball team jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and let the pitching take over from there until the Tigers broke the game open in the seventh in a 13-1 win at Duke Saturday afternoon.
Princeton improved to 4-1 on the season and knotted up its series at Duke after dropping Friday's opening game. The team's complete the three-game set tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.
The game started off right for the Tigers as seniors Steve Young and Eric Fitzgerald led off with back-to-back singles. Junir B.J. Szymanski reached on an error which loaded the bases for sophomore Andrew Salini. Salini grounded out to first base, which brough home Young and Fitzgerald scored a batter later when junior Adam Balkan hit a sacrifice fly. The 2-0 lead was all the pitching would need as sophomore Erik Stiller took over from there. Stiller pitched six innings and allowed three hits and one run while striking out five batters. Stiller earned the win and is now 1-0 on the season. When he left the game, freshman Eric Walz entered the game and pitched the final three innings for his first save. Walz allowed two hits and struck out two.
The Tigers extended the lead to 4-0 with two runs in the fifth inning. Sophomore Matthew Becker led off with a double down the left field line and scored in the next play when Young singled to right field. Young worked his way to third on a stolen base and a groundout and scored when Szymanski grounded out to third base.
Duke got one run back in the bottom of the fifth, but would get no closer as Princeton answered back with a run in the sixth. With two outs, sophomore Zach Wendkos doubled down the left field line and scored when freshman Aaron Prince singled through the right side.
The seventh was Princeton's big inning as the Tigers pushed eight runs across the plate to make the score 13-1. Young and Fitzgerald led off the inning with walks. Szymanski then singled, scoring Young and moving Fitzgerald to second. After an out, Balkan was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Ryan Reich then reached on a fielder's choice, but thanks to a throwing error, Fitzgerald scored and the bases remained load. Prince was then hit by a pitch to score Balkan. With the bases loaded, Young came back to the plate for his second at-bat of the inning and he responded with a triple to the wall in left center to clear the bases. Young scored a batter late when Fitzgerald doubled down the left field line.
From there, Walz shut down the Duke bats as Princeton claimed its fourth win of 2004.