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Princeton University Athletics
Baseball Faces Dartmouth in its Ninth Consecutive Ivy League Championship Series
May 06, 2004 | Baseball
May 6, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team plays for its fourth Ivy League Championship in five years when it faces Dartmouth in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series this weekend at Dartmouth's Red Rolfe Field. The teams will face off in a doubleheader Saturday beginning at noon. If necessary, game three is Sunday at 1 p.m.
A live broadcast of all three games can be found at athletics.dartmouth.edu.
Princeton (25-18, 12-8 Ivy) claimed the Gehrig Division title for the ninth consecutive season with its clinching win over Cornell last Friday. Since the Ivy League adopted the two-division format in 1996, Princeton is the only team to win the Gehrig Division. The Tigers did so this season with a 12-8 record that was four games better than runner-up Columbia. The Tigers enter the series on a three game win streak after sweeping Cornell on Sunday and defeating Rider 15-1 on Wednesday afternoon.
Dartmouth (25-15, 15-5 Ivy) won its third Rolfe Division title in the past five seasons by splitting a four-game series with Harvard last weekend. Dartmouth's 7-2 win in the series' fourth game last Sunday was the clincher as a Harvard win would have forced a one-game playoff between the two schools. Dartmouth enters the game off an 11-3 loss to Boston College on Wednesday. Princeton and Dartmouth opened the 2004 Ivy season against one another on April 3. In the opener, Princeton starter junior Ross Ohlendorf pitched seven strong innings allowing the Big Green just two runs on seven hits as Princeton posted a 10-2 win. Junior B.J. Szymanski had four RBIs in the game and sophomore Andrew Salini plated three runs on a three-run homer to right center in the win. In the second game, Dartmouth rebounded with a 5-2 win although the Princeton pitching limited the Big Green to just three hits on the afternoon. Jeff Speights hit a three-run homer in the game to lift Dartmouth to the win.
The Tigers and Big Green have faced each other twice before in the Ivy League Championship Series. The two teams battled for the 2000 and 2001 league championships with both series' contested at Dartmouth. In 2000, Princeton swept the doubleheader 5-2 and 4-3 to win the league championship and went to the NCAA regional in Houston. A year later, Dartmouth took the first game 6-5, but a 16-6 Tiger win in Game 2 meant they would play a third and decisive game. In that game, Princeton edged the Big Green 6-5 and advanced to the NCAA tournament and played at South Carolina.