Princeton University Athletics
Baseball, Lacrosse Teams Compete For Championships This Weekend
April 26, 2004 | General
April 26, 2004
If you're planning on going to the Ivy League baseball championship series in two weeks, don't point the car towards Princeton. Or New York City or Ithaca. While the teams won't be known until this weekend, the site will definitely not be the home of the Gehrig Division champ.
As the Ivy baseball race enters the final week of the regular season, five of the eight teams are mathematically alive for the title series, though some of their chances are not exactly envious.
The team with the best chance of being in the series - a best-of-three event May 8-9 at the home of the team with the better league record that will send the winner to the NCAA tournament - is Princeton, who has a pair of games at Cornell Friday and home with Cornell Sunday.
Princeton is currently 9-7 in the Ivy League, a record that leads the Gehrig Division and would be out of contention in the Rolfe Division. Columbia is 8-11 with only a game remaining against Cornell (rained out from Sunday) in the league, while the Big Red is 5-10 with the four against Princeton and one against Columbia.
Should Princeton win one of the four games, then Columbia and Cornell would both be eliminated and Princeton would return to the Ivy title series for the eighth straight time. Should Princeton get swept, all sorts of scenarios would unfold, depending on the outcome of the remaining Columbia-Cornell game.
If Princeton does lose all four, it would go to 9-11 in the league. Cornell would go to 9-10; Columbia would still be 8-11. A Columbia win in the makeup game would create a three-way tie at 9-11; a Cornell win would give the Big Red the division at 10-10. In the event of a three-way tie, the first tiebreaker would be head-to-head-to-head, which would have to then give Cornell the edge. Princeton and Columbia would play one game to advance to face Cornell, and the winner of the game between the Princeton-Columbia winner and Cornell would advance to the title series.
Of course, the easiest thing for Princeton would be to win a game this weekend.
The Rolfe Division race is a two-team contest between Dartmouth (13-3) and Harvard (11-5), who play two games Saturday at Harvard and two more Sunday at Dartmouth. Should Dartmouth win at least two, then the Big Green would win the division. Should Harvard win four, the Crimson would win the division. Should Harvard win three, then there would be a tie and a one-game playoff.
The title series will definitely be in either Hanover or Cambridge.
The Ivy lacrosse championships are also up for grabs this weekend. Princeton's women, who also host Maryland Wednesday night, would finish a perfect Ivy season with a win at Brown Saturday. Should Princeton lose to Brown, then the Tigers would finish as co-champs with Dartmouth, who has finished its league season at 6-1.
Even if Princeton loses on Saturday, the Tigers have already clinched the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after their win over the Big Green last Saturday.
The men's lacrosse race is a little messier. Cornell and Princeton have one league loss each; Dartmouth and Brown have two each. Cornell hosts Brown Saturday in the final league game for the Big Red, while Princeton is at Dartmouth Saturday. Princeton also has a league game at Brown the following Saturday, while Dartmouth is also at Harvard the following Saturday.
If Cornell defeats Brown, then the Big Red would earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, regardless of any of the other games. Cornell would win an outright title with a win Saturday and a loss by Princeton in either of its two remaining games.
Should Princeton win out, it would be assured of at least a tie for the title, and the Tigers would earn an outright title with two wins and a Cornell loss to Brown. If Brown beats Cornell, Princeton beats Brown, Dartmouth beats Princeton and Harvard beats Dartmouth, then Princeton and Cornell would still tie for the title, only at 4-2 instead of 5-1, and Cornell would still get the automatic bid.
There could be a shared championship between Cornell and either Princeton or Brown. If Brown beats Cornell and Princeton, Princeton loses to Dartmouth and Dartmouth loses to Harvard, then Brown and Cornell would tie and Brown would win the automatic bid by having beaten Cornell.
Dartmouth's only shot at a piece of a championship would be in a three-way tie, of which there are several scenarios. Under no circumstance can Dartmouth earn the league's automatic NCAA tournament bid.
A four-way tie is impossible.
Any scenario for a three-way tie would require a Brown win over Cornell for starters, which would leave the Big Red at 4-2.
Unlike last year's three-way tie between Princeton, Dartmouth and Cornell, however, any three-way tie this year would not be broken by a random draw. In all of the scenarios, one team would emerge for the automatic bid from its record against the other two:
* if Brown beats Cornell, Dartmouth beats Harvard and Princeton splits its last two games, then there'd be a three-way tie between Cornell, Princeton and the other team that beats Princeton (either Brown or Dartmouth)
* if Brown beats Cornell and Princeton and Princeton beats Dartmouth, then Princeton, Cornell and Brown would finish in a three-way tie, regardless of the outcome of the Dartmouth-Harvard game
* if Dartmouth and Brown both win out, then there would be a three-way tie between Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth
In the case of a three-way tie between Princeton, Cornell and Brown, then the automatic bid would go to Brown, by virtue of the fact that the Bears would have beaten the other two. In the case of a three-way tie between Princeton, Dartmouth and Cornell, then the automatic bid would go to Cornell, who has already beaten the other two. In the event of a three-way tie between Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth, the automatic bid would go to Brown, who has already beaten Dartmouth and would have to have beaten Cornell.