Thursday TigerBlog - Baseball Record, Softball Showdown

If you're going to set a record, you might as well do it in style.
Isn't that right, Kyle Vinci?
The Princeton record for home runs in a season had stood for 27 years until Vinci came along this spring. Vinci, a high school teammate of New York Yankees' shortstop phenom Anthony Volpe at Delbarton, went into yesterday's game against Rider tied for the single-season record with Mike Ciminiello. He came out of it with the record all his own.
He did so in the biggest way possible, too, blasting a grand slam in the eighth that took the Tigers from down one to up 9-6, which would be the final score. As TigerBlog said, you might as well do it in style.
TB's day started with a voicemail asking Princeton to take it easy on Rider. Who was the caller?
Phil Ledesma. Who is Phil Ledesma? Well, did you know that TigerBlog used to be a high school and American Legion baseball coach?
How long ago was this? Long enough ago that one of his former players in now a grandfather.
Yes, that bit of news reached TigerBlog yesterday morning, when he saw he had a missed call from "Philip Ledesma." That was a name from the past.
TB can't remember the last time he heard from Ledesma, but the name leapt out at him. Phil Ledesma was a great high school baseball player, a little undersized but with a great bat and as good a throwing arm you'll see in high school. He was a lead-off hitter who made things happen and played hard all the time. He was a great teammate, but he flew under
When Ledesma was a senior, TB asked him about his future plans. When Phil told him he didn't really have any, TB brought him to see legendary Rider coach Sonny Pittaro — Rider's home field is now named Sonny PIttaro Field — and Ledesma became one of the best Broncs' players of his era. He's still listed in the Rider record book among the school's career leaders in hits.
As an aside, that same record book lists Greg Meszaros, the husband of Princeton Associate Director of Athletics Kim Meszaros, in 13th place with 18 career pitching wins. That puts him one ahead of Jack Armstrong, who won 40 games in the Major Leagues.
Ledesma, a centerfielder, was drafted by the Red Sox but never made it to the Majors. TB learned yesterday that Ledesma moved to California and went into business, and he still lives in Southern California with his wife. The oldest of their three kids has a baby. What the heck?
It was great to catch up with Phil. TigerBlog's record between coaching high school jayvee and freshman and Legion was probably around .500 or so, but he's always hoped he made an impact on some of the young men he coached. Phil was basicaly calling to say "thank you" for helping him out and putting him on a successful path, and that meant more to TB than any game he can remember winning.
As TB wrote the other day, the baseball team got a huge series win over Columbia last weekend, putting the Tigers back over .500 in the Ivy standings and as one of five teams within two games of first place as the season heads towards the first four-team Ivy tournament.
The same is true on the women's side, where there will for the first time be an Ivy softball tournament as well. Princeton has not yet clinched its spot in the tournament mathematically, but it's going to be hard for the Tigers not to qualify.
This weekend is big for the first major Ivy softball prize, the league championship. Right now, Princeton and Harvard are tied for first at 12-3, and they'll play in Princeton in a best of three this weekend, with a single game tomorrow at 2 and then a doubleheader that starts at noon Saturday. The weather here looks like it'll be perfect for the games.
The Ivy standings now have the Tigers and Crimson in first, followed by 8-7 Columbia, 6-6 Dartmouth and 7-8 Yale. The team that wins at least twice this weekend in Princeton will have the head-to-head tiebreaker for home field for the league tournament should the teams tie, and it's almost mathematically certain that either Princeton or Harvard will be the host.
Both Princeton and Harvard have one more Ivy weekend after this one, as the Tigers will be at Dartmouth for three and the Crimson will host Columbia for three.
Given their records, it's probably not shocking that Harvard and Princeton rank 1-2 in the league in both batting and pitching, with Harvard's numbers slightly better in both. Princeton, led by Alexis Laudenslager, leads the league in strikeouts; Harvard is second.
When TB looked all of that up, he also saw that all eight league teams are almost even in team fielding percentage. That's fairly interesting.
Princeton and Harvard played in the 2022 Ivy League Championship Series, which Princeton won. In fact, those two played against each other in three of the final five such events.
Now they're playing for first place and for possible hosting rights.
It's still April, but it's a big weekend.

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