Penn, Princeton persevere against strong adversaries

Over the past few weeks, Ivy League opponents have been traveling around the country to play non-conference matchups in preparation for the start of the Ivy League baseball season this weekend. Here’s a look at how they did:

BROWN:
Two weeks ago, the Bears headed to Alabama for a four-game series with Auburn. Brown dropped all four games, but saw its offense come alive in the final contest that took 11 innings to decide. After adding a run in the top of the 11th inning, junior pitcher Rob Wilcox allowed two earned runs as the Tigers won the game on a fielder’s choice.

Brown then traveled to southern California for a matchup with San Diego last weekend. The Bears commenced the four-game set by dropping another game in extra innings 4-3. After taking a beating in game two, Brown won their second game of the season with a 9-8 victory on March 23. Sophomore Ryan Zrenda knocked in two runs and scored twice while Mark Gormley threw seven decent innings to put Brown in a position to win. Brown will finish up their west coast road trip this week at Pepperdine and USC before heading to Cornell this weekend to open the Ivy season.

CORNELL:
After starting the season with two wins against Navy, Cornell has dropped 10 consecutive games heading into their home opener against Brown this weekend. The Big Red spent the last week in California taking on Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, and Sacramento State, playing nine games in eight days.

Although the Big Red was unable to pick up a win last week, the team was only shut out once, proving its potential for some offensive capability. After losing all three games at Santa Clara, the Big Red gave St. Mary’s some problems in the second game of their series taking a lead into the eighth inning. The Gaels were able to break Cornell’s bullpen in the eighth when they tied the game at six by adding two runs off of reliever David Rochefort.

Cornell left the bases loaded in the ninth inning and stranded a man at third in the tenth before surrendering the game to St. Mary’s in the bottom of the 10th inning on a wild pitch. Cornell then traveled to Sacramento where it dropped a four-game set to Sacramento State that included a 5-18 blow out in game four.

HARVARD:
On March 13, the Crimson traveled south to Pensacola, Florida for a four-game series with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Plainly stated, Harvard was unable to keep up with UAB’s punishing offense, and the Crimson only succeeded in scoring half of UAB’s total runs in one game (a 7-13 loss). Harvard scored just 14 runs in comparison to UAB’s 53, which raises questions about Harvard’s pitching staff.

Those questions were perhaps exacerbated the following weekend in Shreveport, Louisiana where Harvard faced Centenary in a four-game matchup. The Crimson started the series off right with a 10-6 victory behind strong pitching performances from freshman southpaw Brent Suter and reliever Jonah Klees. Suter currently accounts for Harvard’s only two victories this season.

But in game two, Harvard’s pitching woes returned as Centenary bulldozed seven Harvard pitchers in a 31-8 dismantling that looked more like a football score by the end. The game was capped off by a Centenary nine-run eighth inning where 14 hitters stepped up to the plate. Harvard then lost a close game against University of Louisiana at Monroe before heading to LSU and New Orleans where they will finish non-conference play this week before facing Columbia to open the Ivy season.

DARTMOUTH:
As Dartmouth prepares for Ivy League play, the only thing that will be on the team’s mind is getting that first victory. So far, the Big Green have lost all eight of their games including two shutouts and three contests where they only mustered one run.

Dartmouth took a trip to California last week where they dropped one game against Pacific before losing two more to San Jose State. The Big Green ended the first half of their road trip by losing a 0-19 contest as San Jose State pummeled starter Cole Sulser who allowed 15 runs, 11 of which were earned, in 4 2/3 innings of work. Ouch.

The Big Green then lost three more games to Santa Clara, the closest of which was a 0-3 loss in a pitcher’s duel on March 21. Colin Britton threw 6 1/3 strong innings allowing just three runs against a formidable offense, but Santa Clara starter Alex Rivers was better. Rivers threw seven shutout innings and fanned 11 batters to push his record to 2-0 on the young season.

PENN:
Penn has had a decent start to the season with a 9-7 run that includes a 5-2 record against Georgetown. After a week in Florida facing Maine, Georgetown and Rollins, Penn picked up a win against Temple and then traveled to Emmitsburg, Maryland to play a four-game series against Mount St. Mary’s.

The Quakers split the first doubleheader on March 21 with an 3-4 loss in game one, followed by a 8-1 win in game two. In the third contest, William Gordon drilled a pitch in the second inning as part of an 11-4 victory that earned Penn a split.

In the final game, Penn took a 3-1 lead into the seventh inning, but Mount St. Mary’s tallied one run in each of the final three innings to squeak past the Quakers. Starter Todd Roth earned a quality start with 7 2/3 strong innings, but reliever William Gordon—who coincidentally hit another home run in second inning of the game—also surrendered the game-winning run on a walk-off single in the ninth inning. Gordon now has six homers on the young season.

Penn will play Villanova at home today before hosting Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend.

PRINCETON:
In a rare matchup, Princeton faced first-ranked North Carolina last week at Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels blasted Princeton 17-0 in game one, but Princeton held with the nation’s top team the following day losing a 1-6 game. The Tigers then tried their luck against North Carolina A&T and won an 18-7 game in just seven innings.

Princeton then traveled to Annapolis last weekend for four games against Navy. The series started with a 4-0 Princeton victory behind the arm of David Hale who picked up his first win of the season. Navy fought back with an 11-3 win in game two of the series on Saturday morning, but Princeton answered in the second game of the twin bill, sneaking past Navy 8-6. The Tigers won a third victory, 5-2, on Sunday to push their overall record to 7-5. The Tigers will play host to Yale and Brown this weekend.

YALE:
After having four games against Richmond cancelled last week, the Bulldogs took on Towson in Maryland. Yale went 1-2 against Towson, capped off by a 8-16 loss on March 18 where two Bulldogs hit homers in the losing effort.
Over the weekend, Yale traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts to play a pair of games against Holy Cross. The Bulldogs dropped a 7-2 contest in the first game, but scored eight runs the following day to defeat Holy Cross 8-2 and earn a split. Yale will host Connecticut today before playing Princeton and Cornell on the road this weekend to open the Ivy League season.