Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Virginia Commonwealth
Strong Pitching Lifts Baseball To 3-1 Win at Virginia Commonwealth
March 19, 2004 | Baseball
March 19, 2004
Box Score
Richmond, Va. - Strong pitching and aggressive base-running helped lift the Princeton baseball team to a 3-1 win at Virginia Commonwealth Friday night. Junior Ross Ohlendorf pitched seven stellar innings to earn the win and freshman Sal Iacono hit a pair of RBI-singles to lead the Tigers to their seventh victory of the season and snap a three-game skid.
Virginia Commonwealth jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. Scott Sizemore singled and then advanced to second on a walk. He scored when the following batter Jeff Parrish singled through the left side. The Rams threatened again in the third inning with a pair of one-out walks. But Ohlendorf was able to get a strikeout and a pop-up to end the inning with the score still 1-0 for the Rams. Getting out of the jam lifted the Tigers as Princeton pushed across a pair of runs in the top of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. After getting the first out, Virginia Commonwealth's Justin Orenduff gave up his first hit to senior Eric Fitzgerald who singled up the middle. Prior to that at-bat, he had retired the first 10 batters he faced. Junior B.J. Szymanski then reached on a fielder's choice as Fitzgerald was out at second. Sophomore Andrew Salini then singled through the left side and aggressive base-running by Szymanski put him on third. That proved important as he was able to score on junior Adam Balkan's bloop single down the left field line. Salini then scored when the following batter, Iacono, singled to right field to put the Tigers ahead for the first time on the night.
The Tigers added another run thanks to a two-out rally in the sixth inning to take a 3-1 lead. Salini started the rally with his second single of the game and then stole second. Balkan then drew a walk to put two runners on for Iacono. The freshman came through with his second RBI-single of the game thanks to a perfect slide by Salini as once again aggressive base-running led to a Princeton run. The left fielder's throw had beaten him to the plate but a perfect slide around the tag gave the Tigers the two-run lead.
After the rocky start to the game, Ohlendorf cruised through the next six innings, allowing just three base-runners, only one of which reached on a hit. Ohlendorf pitched a total of seven innings allowing just one run on three hits while striking out seven Ram batters. He is now 2-1 on the season and is the first Tiger pitcher to record two wins.
Junior Brian Kappel came on for the final two innings. In the eighth, he got into trouble as gave up a pair of hits to the first two batters. But with runners on first and second, he dug in and struck out the next three batters to get out of the inning unscathed. In the ninth, Kappel struck out the side to earn his third save of the season. In two innings he allowed two hits and struck out six.
For the second time in three starts, Ohlendorf out-pitched another top draft prospect. Two weeks ago it was Justin Verlander of Old Dominion that he defeated, and Friday night it was Orenduff. The Tiger offense got to Orenduff for three runs on seven hits, all singles, and a walk to hand him the loss.
Princeton is now 2-0 on the season in night games. The series continues tomorrow afternoon with a double header. The first game begins at 2 p.m.