Baseball Set to Face Virginia in NCAA Regional Play

June 2, 2004

Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton baseball team opens the 2004 NCAA Baseball Tournament on Friday night at 7 p.m., when it meets Virginia at Davenport Field at the UVa Baseball Stadium. The Tigers are making their fourth NCAA appearance in five seasons and are the only team in the Regional with players that have NCAA Tournament experience.

2004 Princeton Baseball Postseason Guide in PDF Format
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2004 Charlottesville Regional Schedule

The NCAA Regional is a double-elimination tournament consisting of four teams playing a total of at least six games (seven if necessary). There will be two games on Friday, three contests on Saturday and one game (or two if necessary) on Sunday. The time slots for the contests are as follows:

Friday, June 4
Game 1 - No. 2 Vanderbilt (42-17) vs. No. 3 George Mason (39-17) - 3:00 p.m.
Game 2 - No. 1 Virginia (42-13) vs. No. 4 Princeton (27-18) - 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 5
Game 3 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 - 11:00 a.m.
Game 4 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 - 3 p.m.
Game 5 - Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 - 7 p.m.

Sunday, June 6
Game 6 - Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5 - 1 p.m.
Game 7 - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 (if necessary) - 6 p.m.

Tracking the Tigers...

You can follow eveyrthing that happens at the Regional in GoPrincetonTigers.com and on the official tournament website. Live stats will be available for all games and the links will be available on the front page of GoPrincetonTigers.com on the days of the games. Additionally, when Princeton faces Virginia on Friday night, the game can be listed to online and a link will be available on the front page of GoPrincetonTigers.com on the day of the game. Any additional Princeton matchups with either Virginia or Vanderbilt will be broadcast by those respective schools and linked to on the website. News & Notes...

History Lesson - Princeton is making its fourth trip to the NCAA baseball tournament in the last five years. In all the Tigers have made nine NCAA appearances and have an overall record of 2-15 in tournament games.

Ivy Champions

How Princeton Got Here - Princeton received the automatic berth awarded to the Ivy League champion. The Tigers were 12-8 in the Ivy League regular season, winning the Lou Gehrig Division by four games over Columbia. The Tigers then traveled to Dartmouth, the Rolfe Division Champions for the league championship series and defeated the Big Green in two games.

Princeton vs. Virginia - Princeton and Virginia will meet for the 46th time in both school's baseball histories. Princeton leads the all-time series against the Cavaliers 30-15 in a series that dates back to 1890. The teams have met just three times since 1949. They met in the 1996 Tuscaloosa Regional of the NCAA Tournament, a 12-2 Virginia win, and met twice during the 2000 season with UVa claiming wins in both games, by scores of 11-5 and 5-2.

Princeton vs. Vanderbilt - Should the Tigers face Vanderbilt in the regional, it would be the fifth meeting between the two schools on the baseball field. In a series that began with a 3-2 Princeton win in 10 innings in 1921, the Tigers hold a 3-1 edge over the Commodores. The teams last met in 1971 and split a pair of games during a tournament in Florida.

Princeton vs. George Mason - If the Tigers face George Mason in the tournament, it would be the first meeting between the two schools. George Mason is the lone member of the Colonial Athletic Conference that Princeton has not faced in its program history.

Recently Regional - Princeton is the only team in the Charlottesville Regional that played in the NCAA Regionals last season. In fact, the Tigers are the only team of the four to have played in the NCAA Tournament in last four years and are the only team with players that have tournament experience. George Mason last competed in a regional in 1993, Virginia in 1996 (when it faced Princeton) and Vanderbilt in 1980.

Common Ground - Princeton shares seven combined common opponents with Virginia and George Mason, but none with Vanderbilt. Here is each teams record against those teams.

Brown (UVA was 2-0, Prin was 1-1)
Duke (UVA was 3-1, Prin was 2-1)
North Carolina (UVA was 1-2, Prin was 0-2)
North Carolina A&T (UVA was 3-0, Prin was 0-1)
Old Dominion (UVA was 0-1, GMU was 4-0, Prin was 3-0)
Seton Hall (UVA was 3-0, GMU was 0-1, Prin was 0-1)
Va. Commonwealth (GMU was 3-1, Prin was 2-2)

Princeton vs. the Tournament Field - The Tigers faced three NCAA Tournament teams during the regular season and was a combined 3-4 in those games. Princeton went 3-1 against Stony Brook, 0-2 against North Carolina and 0-1 against St. John's.

Conference Records - Princeton played teams from nine conferences this year and could face a 10th in the Regionals in the SEC. Princeton first opponent is Virginia of the ACC, which Princeton went 2-3 against this season. The Tigers also faced teams in the CAA, of which George Mason is a member, and were 5-2 against the conference. Princeton did not face an SEC opponent and last faced one in the 2003 Auburn Regional when the Tigers faced Clemson. Against the other conferences this season, Princeton went 1-0 against the Southern Conference, 0-1 against the MEAC, 3-1 against the America East Conference, 1-0 against the NEC, 0-3 against the Big East, 1-0 against the MAAC and 14-8 against Ivy League teams.

Strictly Coincidence - Princeton, Vanderbilt and Virginia were three of the teams competing in the 2004 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship three weekends ago in Princeton. The fourth team of that foursome was Georgetown.

Leader of the Pack - Tiger head coach Scott Bradley has led his team to the Gehrig Division crown in each of his seven seasons at the helm, and four times the Tigers went on to claim an Ivy League championship. Bradley is currently 173-141 at Princeton.

More Bradley - Bradley spent nine seasons catching in the major leagues for the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. In 1981 he was the Yankees second draft pick, taken behind future NFL Hall of Famer John Elway. Bradley's older brother, Bob, is currently the head coach of the New York/New Jersey Metrostars of Major League Soccer. His younger brother, Jeff, is an editor and staff writer for ESPN The Magazine.

Princeton Nationally - Three Tigers have regularly ranked in the Top 30 this season in the national statistics. Pitcher Ross Ohlendorf currently stands 21st in the nation with 11.1 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Outfielder B.J. Szymanski ranks fifth with .19 triples per game and reliever Brian Kappel just recently fell out of the top 30 for saves.

Ross Ohlendorf

Top Prospects - Last season Thomas Pauly became the highest Tiger ever chosen in the Major League Baseball Draft when the Cincinnati Reds chose him 51st overall. This year, that number will almost certainly fall as both junior pitcher Ross Ohlendorf and junior outfielder B.J. Szymanski are projected first-round draft picks for this Monday's upcoming draft. In Ivy League history only four players have been chosen in the first round. They are Bill Almon (First pick overall by San Diego in 1974 from Brown), Ron Darling (Ninth pick overall by Texas in 1981 from Yale), Doug Glanville (12th pick overall in 1991 by Philadelphia from Penn) and Mike Remlinger (16th pick overall in 1987 by San Francisco from Dartmouth).

Recent Draftees - Princeton has had five players drafted in the past four drafts and there are currently four former Tigers playing in the Minor Leagues. With as many as four Tigers being potentially drafted on Monday, the number is sure to rise over the next few seasons.

B.J. Szymanski

Two Sport Stars - Three members of the Princeton baseball team play two sports at Princeton. Junior centerfielder B.J. Szymanski and freshman pitcher Eric Walz are both receivers on the football team, while junior Will Venable is a point guard on the men's basketball team. Both Szymanski and Venable received All-Ivy recognition for the league in both sports.

2003 NCAA Recap - Last season the Tigers were placed in the Auburn Regional with the host, Clemson and Ohio State. Princeton opened with Auburn and dropped a hard-fought 5-2 game. The following afternoon, Princeton met Clemson and played a thrilling 10-inning contest that Clemson took 7-6. Princeton rallied to tie the game three, including a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings and had two on in the 10th but were unable to tie it up.

2001 NCAA Recap - In 2001 Princeton shook things up at the South Carolina Regional. The Tigers began by forcing top-seeded Central Florida to 12 innings in a game that UCF eked out 13-12. The Tigers rebounded with an 11-6 win over The Citadel in the first game on Saturday, Princeton's first NCAA win in 36 years, but bowed out later that afternoon to South Carolina 11-7.

Ivy League Championship Recap - After struggling early in the Ivy League season, Princeton knew it would have to win on the road to return to the NCAA tournament, and that's exactly what happened. The Tigers visited Dartmouth for the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series and removed all doubt with a resounding 14-3 win in the first game and a dramatic 5-4 10-inning win in the second game. Princeton has played in nine consecutive league championship series and has won five of them, including four of the last five played.

Haven't We Seen This Before - When Princeton knocked off Dartmouth in Game 2 of the Ivy League Championship Series, the game-tying run and the game-winning hit came from an unlikely hero, freshman Aaron Prince. Princeton entered the game as a pinch runner in the ninth and scored the tying run. In the 10th he came to the plate with the bases loaded and singled home the winning run. That finish was similar to that of the 2001 Ivy League Championship when then freshman, now senior Steve Young came to the plate in a pinch-hitting role and delivered the game and series-winning hit for the Tigers.

All About Offense - The 2004 Princeton baseball team has put up some of the best numbers of any team in the program's history. This team ranks in Princeton all-time Top 5 in several categories; wins (27-2nd), batting average (.304-4th), runs scored (321-2nd), hits (472-1st), doubles (90-third), triples (20-first), home runs (34-2nd), extra-base hits (144-2nd), slugging percentage (.454-4th) and RBIs (285-2nd). Additionally the team set two records for runs in a doubleheader, and had its third-highest scoring inning and game of program history.

All Academic - Junior Ross Ohlendorf became the third Tiger in as many years to be named Academic All-District II. The organizational research and financial engineering major was also named Academic All-Ivy, along with classmate Brian Kappel. Kappel is majoring in history.

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