Courtesy: Beverly Schaefer Adrian Turnham hit a three-run homer in the opener.

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Princeton baseball team came within an inning of claiming the Gehrig Division championship after winning the opening game and leading up until the eighth inning of the nightcap in a doubleheader at Cornell on Sunday afternoon. As a result, the teams will have to play a fifth game to determine the Gehrig Division championship.

Game 1
Box Score

The Princeton baseball team jumped to leads in the first, second and fourth innings of the opening game, but it wasn’t until senior Adrian Turnham’s three-run home run in the fifth inning that the Princeton baseball team took the lead for good in a 9-7 win in the opener.

Turnham’s three-run shot gave Princeton a 7-4 lead at the time, and although Cornell moved within a run at 7-6, the Tigers were able to add to it in the final inning for the 9-7 win. Turnham had two hits and drove in four in the win, while junior Brian Berkowitz had a team-high three hits and sophomore Greg Van Horn drove in two more runs.

Princeton got off to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Van Horn sac fly. Cornell answered back in the bottom of the first, but Princeton went ahead 2-1 on senior Derek Beckman’s run-scoring single in the second. Cornell once again answered the score was tied until the fourth when senior Dan DeGeorge plated a run on an infield single and scored on a Van Horn double.

An inning later, Turnham homered with Berkowitz and junior Jon Broscious aboard to give Princeton the lead for good. Cornell chipped single runs off the lead in the fifth and sixth, but the Tigers reassumed the three-run margin with two in the seventh on a Turnham RBI-single and a Cornell error in the field.

Sophomore David Palms earned the win as he went five innings and allowed six runs on eight hits, although two of the six runs were unearned. He improved to 5-2 overall this season. Sophomore Matt Grabowski pitched the final two innings for the save, his fifth of the season.

Game 2
Box Score

Princeton led much of the way and led up until the eighth inning but Cornell pushed across two runs in the bottom of the eighth for a 4-3 win in the nightcap to force a play-off game for the Gehrig Division crown.

Princeton jumped to a 1-0 lead in the first when junior Jack Murphy plated a run on a sac fly. Cornell came back with two runs in the bottom of the second to lead 2-1, but the Tigers countered in the third on RBI-singles from Murphy and junior David Hale to regain the lead.

Princeton would hold that lead until the bottom of the eighth when Frank Hager hit a two-run home run. In the Princeton ninth, Beckman got to third before the Big Red recorded the final out.

Junior Langford Stuber allowed four runs on nine hits in seven and two-thirds innings and was charged with the loss.

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Princeton is now 18-18 overall and 10-10 in the Ivy League. Princeton and Cornell finished the regular season tied atop the Gehrig Division standings. The teams will play a playoff game on Wednesday afternoon at 12 noon at Cornell to determine which team will face Dartmouth in the Ivy League Championship Series next weekend.