Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Monmouth
Five Homeruns Lift Princeton Baseball to Win Over Monmouth
April 20, 2004 | Baseball
April 20, 2004
Box Score
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team used five homeruns over the final four innings to power its way past Monmouth 12-5 Tuesday afternoon at Clarke Field. Junior B.J. Szymanski led the Tigers with two homers while junior Will Venable, junior Adam Balkan and freshman Sal Iacono each added a homer. Junior Matt Sullivan fought through a tough opening inning to earn the first win of his collegiate career.
The game did not start out well for Sullivan and the Tigers. A pair of walks on 3-2 pitches to lead off the game brought Nick Massari to the plate and he crushed the 1-0 offering from Sullivan deep to center to give the Hawks a 3-0 lead. Misplayed balls and a few hits led to the Hawks tacking on one more run in the first and another in the second to take a 5-0 lead after two innings. The score remained there until Princeton's bats awoke in the fifth inning. In that inning, senior Eric Fitzgerald drew a one-out walk and scored when Szymanski ripped his first home run well over the tall evergreens in left field. In the next inning, Princeton closed the deficit to 5-4 with another two-run homer, this time off the bat of Balkan. Senior Ryan Reich led off the inning with one of his four hits on the afternoon and came all the way around on Balkan's shot to right field.
The Tigers added five more runs in the seventh inning on a big double and a home run. Fitzgerald led off the inning with a single to put one aboard and he advanced to second when senior Tim Lahey singled through the left side. Fitzgerald stole third then scored when Iacono hit a ground-rule double to left field. Reich was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Balkan who hit a sac fly to score Lahey. Venable then came to the plate as a pinch hitter and he connected on a 3-1 pitch, launching it well over the wall in left-center.
The Tigers tacked on three more runs in the eighth. Szymanski led off with a home run just inside the right field foul pole and then after a walk by Lahey, Iacono hit a long ball to left center.
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Matt Sullivan posted his first career victory. |
Princeton returns to action tomorrow afternoon at Seton Hall for a non-conference game at 3:30 p.m.