.png&width=24&type=webp)
Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Baseball Looks to Sew Up Division Title & Home Field with Cornell Series
April 28, 2011 | Baseball
Princeton's magic number to lock up the division is one as it leads second-place Penn by four games entering the weekend so any combination of one Princeton win or a Penn loss would seal the division. The other race for Princeton is the one for home field in the ILCS. Dartmouth and Yale are currently tied atop the Rolfe standings. Princeton has a two-game lead on both and its magic number on hosting outright is three against Dartmouth or two against Yale since Princeton loses a tiebreaker with Dartmouth should the teams finish with identical records.
Princeton is now 12-4 in the Ivy League after taking three of four games from Penn and Columbia over the last two weekends. Princeton last won as many as 12 league games in a season in 2004 when the Tigers finished 12-8 and were Gehrig and Ivy champions. The best record Princeton has had in an Ivy season since the current schedule format was adopted was 15-5 in both the 1999 and 2003 seasons.
Last weekend Princeton won three of four games at home against Columbia. After falling in the opening game, Princeton reeled off three straight wins to take the series. The Tigers three wins came by a combined five runs as Princeton continues to win close games this season. Ten of Princeton's 12 league wins have been by three runs or less.
Princeton's batting average as a team is now up to .268 which is its high-water mark for the season. Matt Bowman leads all players with a .313 average and is one of four with averages above .300. Sam Mulroy is hitting .312 and leads the Tigers in all power numbers including 31 RBIs. Mike Ford is batting .308 and Jonathan York is at .300. Bowman leads the team in runs scored with 30, while Ford and Mishu also have high RBI totals. Princeton's conference batting average is nearly 20 points higher at .287, which is the second highest team average in league games.
Princeton's team ERA continues to fall and is now at 4.98 overall and a league best 3.02 in Ivy contests. The Tigers got two wins from starters last weekend as Zak Hermans picked up his team-leading fourth win in the second game of series and Mike Ford took the third game of the series with a complete-game two hitter. Matt Grabowski got a win out of the bullpen in the final game of the series.
Princeton and Cornell start the series on Friday afternoon at Clarke Field and continues on Sunday at Cornell's Hoy Field. Princeton had a streak of either splitting or winning its season series with Cornell of nine before the Big Red took three of four from Princeton last spring. The teams split in 2009 and Princeton took the series in 2007 and 2008 with three games.
Cornell is currently 9-27 overall and 6-10 in the Ivy League. The Big Red took three of four games from Penn last weekend at home, but fell in three of four the previous weekend at Columbia. The Big Red enters the weekend hitting .258 as a team with a team ERA of 6.06. Mickey Brodsky leads all batters with a .326 average and is followed by three more hitting above .300 in Marshall Yanzick (.322), Brian Billigen (.303) and Brenton Peters (.301). On the mound, Cornell's three main starts have ERA in the fours and fives. Jadd Schmeltzer is the Big Red's top starter with a 4.20 ERA and Dan Lea has 11 appearances nine coming out of the pen with a 3.67 ERA.
Following the weekend, Princeton plays at Delaware on Tuesday.