Almost First Pitch In The Ivy Baseball Tournament

TigerBlog was talking to a friend yesterday about his experience with the raccoons in the Franklin Field press box.

He thought he'd shared this story with you before, and it turns out he has: back in 2009. Anyway, here's what happened:

It was the 2007 Princeton at Penn men's lacrosse game at Franklin Field. TB was doing radio for the game, which meant he was the only person in the overhang media area that for football is crowded with broadcasters and statisticians.

On this night, though, it was just TB — and the two raccoons who wandered in. Yes, raccoons. 

So what do you do if you're broadcasting a game on the radio and your space is invaded by two raccoons? Are they friendly? Dangerous? Rabid? Penn fans? 

As he continued to at least try to keep broadcasting, TB stood up on table, banging his head on the metal ceiling in the process. He also picked up the only thing he could think of to throw if he needed to, and that was a stapler that had been sitting there since football season — perhaps football season of 1910 even.

Just as quickly as they arrived, the raccoons got bored and left. TB isn't sure what exactly they were thinking, but he's glad he didn't have to deal with them. 

And that's his raccoons story. Why bring that up today? He has no idea, especially since the subject for today is tomorrow's start of the Ivy League baseball tournament.

This will be, if TB is counting correctly, the 10th Ivy tournament of the year — field hockey, men's soccer, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, softball and baseball. 

Considering that just a few years ago there were no Ivy tournaments other than lacrosse, it's been a big thing for the league office to bring all of these events to life. TB was recently sent a survey to fill out about his experiences at the men's lacrosse tournament, and he gave everyone in the league office high marks, especially Celene McGovern and Rachel Schermick. 

It's not an easy assignment, and they've managed to make these events go really well, providing fans and most importantly athletes with a great experience. 

Of course, neither one of them stayed at the Cayuga Blu hotel, but hey. 

TB has no doubt that the baseball tournament will go well. Last year's inaugural one at Penn certainly did. 

This year's tournament will be held at Columbia, the Ivy League champion. If TB could make one change to the way these tournaments work, it would be to consider the team that wins the Ivy League champion and not the regular season winner, by the way.

Princeton enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will take on No. 3 Cornell at 11 tomorrow in the first game. The top-seeded Lions will then face Penn in Game 2.

Like last week's softball tournament, the baseball tournament is a double-elimination event that could run all the way through Monday if the maximum number of games are needed.

It's a near-impossibility to come all the way back through a double-elimination baseball tournament with a loss in the first game. It's doable, but to make it happen you need a lot of pitchers. 

In softball, teams can get by with two or three. In baseball, that's not how it works. 

If it did, then Princeton would give the ball to Jacob Faulkner and see what would happen. Princeton finished second in the league largely because it has Faulkner, who went 7-1 with four saves for the Tigers. 

Princeton's pitching staff has been decimated by injuries. Faulkner is not a one-man show by any means, but he does have a hand in 11 of the team's 17 wins. He led the Ivy League in ERA (3.16, only one other pitcher was under 4.00) and wins, was second in saves and fifth in opponent batting average. 

Cornell, Princeton's first opponent, is the No. 2 hitting and No. 7 pitching team in the league. What does it all add up to? 

The Ivy tournament, that's what. With a trip to the NCAA tournament at the end of the rainbow. 

First pitch is tomorrow at 11.