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Princeton University Athletics
Baseball Looks to Continue Strong Ivy Play Against Penn This Weekend
April 23, 2004 | Baseball
April 23, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team (19-14; 7-5 Ivy) resumes Gehrig Division action this weekend when Penn (8-25; 3-13 Ivy) visits Clarke Field for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend. Princeton enters the weekend atop the Gehrig Division standings and can pull away from the field with a series win this weekend.
The Tigers played twice this week, defeating Monmouth on Tuesday and falling at Seton Hall on Wednesday. Tuesday's game started slow for the Tigers but Princeton's pitching settled down and the bats woke up as the Tigers pounded out a 12-5 victory. Princeton hit five home runs on the game for only the fourth time in school history. The all-time high is seven, which the Tigers achieved against Texas A&M-Kingsville in 1996. The Tigers had hit five homers in a game twice prior to Tuesday, in 1960 against Elon and in 1999 against Wagner. The homers were hit by juniors B.J. Szymanski (2), Will Venable, and Adam Balkan, as well as freshman Sal Iacono. Junior Matt Sullivan pitched seven innings to capture the first win of his career. Wednesday's game did not go as well for the Tigers as Seton Hall jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Venable and sophomore Andrew Salini paced the Tigers on the afternoon with two hits apiece. Senior Ryan Reich posted Princeton's only other hit in the game.
Princeton's four-game sweep of Columbia last weekend lifted Princeton to the top of the Gehrig Division standings. The Tigers are three games up on Columbia and Cornell and can clinch this weekend with a magic number of five (Princeton wins plus Cornell losses). Princeton has also climbed into the race for home field in the Ivy League Championship Series and sits two games behind Dartmouth and one behind Harvard and Yale.
Saturday and Sunday, April 24 and 25, 12:00 p.m.
Penn at Princeton (Doubleheaders)
Clarke Field
Broadcast: The second game on Saturday and the first on Sunday will be broadcasted live on WPRB (www.wprb.com).
Penn enters the game at the bottom of the Gehrig Division standings with a 3-13 Ivy League record and the Quakers are 8-25 overall. Penn enters the weekend on a five-game losing streak dating back to win in the first game of last Saturday's doubleheader with Cornell. The Quakers' three league wins have come over Cornell, Columbia and Yale.
Last season the Tigers took three-of-four games from Penn in Philadelphia. The Tigers have never split or lost a series with Penn under head coach Scott Bradley. Since Bradley became Princeton's coach in 1998, Princeton is 21-3 against Penn. Last season Penn claimed the first game of the four-game set with a home run in the bottom of the seventh to post an 8-7 win. From there on the Tiger pitching took over as Princeton posted wins if 6-2, 3-0 and 4-2 to essentially lock up the 2003 Gehrig Division title.
In last year's series, senior Tim Lahey hit a pair of home runs while Balkan and Venable each added one. Szymanski and senior Steve Young each posted multiple-RBI games as well.