Courtesy: Beverly Schaefer

The Princeton baseball team swept Columbia, 3-2 and 5-3, in a doubleheader on Monday afternoon. With the wins today, Princeton is now tied for first place in the Gehrig Division standings, along with Cornell and Columbia with matching 5-7 records. Overall the Tigers improve to 12-15.

Game 1
Box Score

Senior Brian Berkowitz singled in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning as Princeton took Game 1 by a 3-2 score. Sophomore David Palms earned the complete game win on the mound allowing one earned run on six hits.

Columbia scored the game’s first run when Bobby O’Brien singled in a run in the third, but Princeton erased the lead when junior Jon Broscious hit a solo home run in the bottom of the inning. It was his fourth of the season and his third of the weekend.

The Tigers added a run in the fourth when senior Dan DeGeorge scored from first on junior Jack Murphy’s single. Columbia evened the score with an unearned run in the sixth, but Princeton answered back, generating a run with two outs.

Murphy was hit by a pitch and broke for second on the 3-2 pitch to junior David Hale. The pitch was a ball and therefore a walk, but Columbia catcher Dean Forthun fired the ball to second base, where no one was covering. Murphy took third on the error and then scored on the Berkowitz single.

Game 2
Box Score

Princeton scored five runs in the first inning and was able to hold on to its lead through nine innings to earn a 5-3 win over Columbia in game two.

Dean Forthun homered as the third batter up for Columbia in the top of the first inning, but Princeton’s offense answered with a five-run, four-hit inning to take a 5-1 lead after the first inning.

Derek Beckman walked, and a sacrifice bunt by Dan DeGeorge advanced Beckman to second. Greg Van Horn reached first on a fielder’s choice, taking out DeGeorge at second base, but advancing Beckman another bag. Jack Murphy singled to bring Beckman home. Jon Broscious found his way to first after being hit by a pitch to load the bases. A double to right field by Brian Berkowitz scored Murphy and Van Horne to make it 3-1. A sac fly by Adrian Turnham brought Broscious in for the 4-1 lead, and David Hale hit out to center to clear the bases, bringing Berkowitz home.

The Tigers’ earned one more hit in their first go-round at the plate, with Matt Connor picking up a single.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that Columbia got its second run, when an Alex Aurrichio single brought Mike Roberts home, after he hit a double to left field and advanced off a Bobby O’Brien single.

After a Roberts single, starting pitcher Langford Stuber was replaced at the mound by Matt Grabowski. O’Brien hit out to center and Roberts made his way to third. Aurrichio hit into a double play, taking himself and O’Brien out but scoring Roberts to make it 5-3.

The Tigers had the game in the bag after an easy hit by Alex Ferrara was picked up but an errant pass to first pass gave Ferrara room to reach third base. Grabowski was able to strike out Billy Rumpke to prevent any further damage.

Stuber earned the win to improve to 3-2. He allowed three runs on seven hits, while striking out six batters in eight innings pitched. Grabowski had a scoreless one inning session. Harrison Slutsky allowed five runs on four hits in one inning to pick up the loss for Columbia. Reliever Roger Aquino allowed four hits, no runs and zero walks.