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Princeton University Athletics
Baseball Visits Yale and Brown This Weekend
April 08, 2004 | Baseball
April 8, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team (12-10; 1-3) looks to rebound from a disappointing start to the Ivy League season on the road this weekend at Yale (7-13; 2-2) and Brown (4-11; 1-1). The Tigers are the only team in the league that is above .500 on the road and that will be key as Princeton heads north for the weekend.
Last season the Tigers took three-of-four from Brown and Yale in games played at Clarke Field. Brown won the first game of the weekend before the Tigers rebounded with a win in the nightcap and a sweep of Yale the following afternoon. B.J. Szymanski had three RBIs in the win over Brown, Eric Fitzgerald hit a game-winning walk-off three-run homer in the first game against Yale, and the Tigers scored 16 runs on 17 hits to take Game 2 from Yale.
The Tigers are 10-2 against Yale under head coach Scott Bradley. After sweeping the Bulldogs from 1998 to 2000, the team split in 2001 and 2002 before last season's sweep. Princeton is 5-7 in that span against Brown. The teams split in every year except 1999 when Brown took both games. Yale enters the weekend 7-13 overall and 2-2 in the Ivy League. Prior to a 7-6 loss to Iona yesterday afternoon, the Bulldogs split both of their Ivy League doubleheaders last weekend at Penn and Columbia.
Brown is currently 4-13 overall and 1-1 in the league. The Bears split their lone doubleheader last weekend with Columbia before rain washed out their Sunday games at Penn. On Wednesday Brown was swept in a doubleheader at home with Rhode Island.
News & Notes
National Spotlight - Centerfielder B.J. Szymanski became the second Tiger this season to be featured by Baseball America. The article was also published on espn.com and can be found at the following link.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=1777335
Poll - Princeton dropped two spots to No. 15 in the CollegeBaseballInsider.com Northeast Coaches Poll after last weekend. The top five positions in the poll belong to Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason.
Award Watch - Centerfielder B.J. Szymanski was the lone Ivy Leaguer on the season's first 2004 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Watch List. The list features the top 30 amateur players in America as selected by USA Baseball.
USA Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association present the Golden Spikes Award, amateur baseball's most prestigious honor, annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country.
Each week, USA Baseball releases an updated watch list of its top 30 players.
Ivy Honors - In the first two weeks of the season, Princeton took four Ivy League weekly awards and had two honor roll nominees. In Week 3 of Ivy reporting, pitcher Ross Ohlendorf and centerfielder B.J. Szymanski were named to the honor roll. Ohlendorf now has been Pitcher of the Week once and on the honor roll once. Szymanski has been on the honor roll all three weeks.