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Zack Belski Breaks 84-Year RBI Record To Highlight Wild Sweep At Brown
April 10, 2016 | Baseball
BOX SCORES: Princeton 11, Brown 9 l Princeton 25, Brown 7
Game 1 was a thriller. Game 2 was a record breaker. Both were Princeton victories.
One game after fighting out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning for an 11-9 victory, Princeton scored 25 runs to complete a Sunday sweep of Brown and remain in first place in the Gehrig Division entering divisional play. The Tigers broke a program record with 36 runs in a doubleheader. Zack Belski helped power Princeton in the nightcap with a Princeton-record eight RBIs, topping a record that has stood for 84 years and been shared by six Princeton players.
The 25 runs is the most Princeton has scored in a game since May 7, 1992 (Monmouth), and the second-most in program history; on March 29, 1974, Princeton scored 29 in a win over Ursinus.
GAME 1: Princeton 11, Brown 9
Danny Hoy went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two RBIs, while Paul Tupper went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored, but it took a dramatic final two outs in the seventh to clinch the Tigers' fifth Ivy League win of the season.
Princeton, which led 8-1 in the middle of the second inning, added an insurance run in the top of the seventh to take an 11-7 lead into the final three outs. A walk, single and walk loaded the bases with no out, but Danny Thompson followed with a strikeout. Brown's Marc Sredojevic and Tim McKeithan hit run-scoring back-to-back singles to cut the deficit in half and leave the bases loaded.
Thompson responded in style. He struck out Rob Henry, and then Noah Shulman was thrown out trying to steal home to finish the game.
Cameron Mingo picked up the victory by allowing only four earned runs over seven innings. He was given a nice lead to work with early; Tupper's two-run double powered a four-run first inning, while Belski had a three-run double in the second inning to help build the 8-1 lead.
GAME 2: Princeton 25, Brown 7
If Hoy and Belski were pleased with their opening game, the nightcap left them thrilled. Belski went 5-for-7 with three runs scored and the record-setting eight RBIs, while Hoy went 5-for-6 with five runs scored and two RBIs.
Once again, Princeton jumped all over Brown, scoring three runs in the first and eight in the second to grab full control. Belski, Tupper and Nick Hernandez all had RBIs in the first inning, while Princeton batted around in the second, recording seven hits en route to the eight-run outburst. Belski added a two-run double in the fourth, and RBI single in the eighth and a three-run blast over the centerfield fence in the ninth to close out his historic performance.
Of course, it takes more than a couple standout performances to reach 25 runs. Billy Arendt went 3-for-5 with four runs scored and five RBIs, while both Danny Baer and Andrew Christie had three-hit games.
Keelan Smithers picked up his second win of the season, as he allowed five runs over five innings and struck out two.
Princeton will enter divisional play with a one-game lead over Penn, which got an extra-innings win Sunday to earn a split at Harvard. Those two teams will go toe-to-toe for four games at Clarke Field next weekend, and all four will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
Princeton will play once before that; the Tigers will head to Queens, N.Y. Wednesday night to take on St. John's on ESPN3.
PRINCETON SINGLE-GAME RBI RECORD
8 • Zack R. Belski, vs. Brown, April 10, 2016
7 • Gerry G. Morse, vs. Rutgers, June 8, 1932
7 • Robert L. Peters, Jr., vs. Yale, June 13, 1942
7 • Anthony J. Riposta, vs. Temple, April 4, 1972
7 • Daniel P. Puskas, vs. Columbia, April 5, 1992
7 • Andrew P. Hanson, vs. Columbia, April 16, 2000
7 • William D. Venable, at Old Dominion, March 20, 2005