Epic, And Fortuitous

If you are looking for the hero for the Princeton baseball team for the Ivy League tournament to date, the answer is "who in the world can say?" 

And that speaks volumes about this team.

Is it Scott Bandura, who has homered in every game Princeton has played? Is it Justin Kim, whose relief appearance yesterday against Harvard was equal parts brilliant and gutsy? Maybe it's Nick DiPietrantonio, or Kyle Vinci, or Matt Scannell or anyone else you want to choose. None of that matters to anyone in a Tiger uniform now. All that matters is that this team is still playing today.

What a weekend it was for Princeton baseball. 

TigerBlog would have thought that the best word to describe the Princeton baseball team's 13-11 win over Columbia in the losers' bracket of the Ivy League tournament Saturday would have to have been "epic."

It certainly was, in every sense of the word. There haven't been too many games that Princeton has played in any sport in recent years that have been more grueling than this one, for that matter. It lasted three minutes short of four hours after a 45-minute rain delay, saw Princeton rally from five runs down and saw Columbia rally from six runs down before Scannell's two-run eighth-inning single proved to be the difference. 

Princeton also blasted three home runs in the game, with a Vinci grand slam, a three-run shot from Nick DiPietrantonio and a solo shot from Bandura. There were 24 runs, 24 hits, four errors, eight pitchers and an astonishing 404 pitches.

So yes. It was clearly epic. It required every ounce of effort, toughness and togetherness Princeton could manage.

As it turned out, though, it was more than just epic. It was also, to use another word, "fortuitous."

How so? 

The game ran so long that the second game of the doubleheader, the winners' bracket game between Penn and Harvard, had to be pushed back to yesterday. As a result, instead of playing a team in its first game of the day after both were rested, instead Princeton got to play a team who had already played one game yesterday.

That team turned out to be Harvard, who lost 10-7 to Penn in a game that ran three minutes past three hours and featured 344 pitches of its own. 

Was it an advantage for Princeton? Who knows. Probably, but how much of one? Again, who knows.

Princeton again gutted it out, this time defeating the Crimson 10-3. The Tigers got three more home runs in that game, as Bandura and DiPietrantonio again hit long balls, as did Brendan Cumming. DiPietrantonio had five RBIs, three of which came on his second-inning blast after the Tigers trailed 2-0 and then two more on a seventh-inning single as Princeton broke the game open.

Freshman pitcher Kim, who threw 44 pitches in the game Saturday, came back and was masterful in relief yesterday. After fellow freshman Will Sword made his first start and kept the Tigers in it for three innings, Kim went the rest of the way, shutting out the Crimson for six innings, ending it with a strikeout and then a slam of his glove on the ground. His numbers included two hits, four strikeouts and 90 pitches.

The result of all of this baseball is that Princeton is still alive as the tournament reaches its final day. The task now is to sweep Penn on the Quakers' home field.

First pitch is at 11. Should the Tigers win that game, then there would be a deciding game afterwards. If Penn wins the first game, then the double-elimination tournament ends there.

As you know, the winner of this tournament gets the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. 

TigerBlog said Friday that it's not easy to lose the first game of a four-team double-elimination tournament and come all the way back, but that's just how it's happened. Harvard beat Princeton 3-2 way back on Friday, which seems like a long time ago — certainly it was a lot of pitches ago — in a game that Princeton led 2-0 before three late unearned runs won it for the Crimson. 

Bandura, by the way, homered in that game as well. 

That set up the game Saturday, which was played in a misty rain as Princeton and Columbia both played to keep their seasons going. The game seemed to change almost inning to inning, as it was 5-0 Columbia, then 5-4 Columbia, then 8-5 Princeton after Vinci deposited his grand slam over the fence. For Vinci, by the way, that was his 21st home run of the season, which extends his Ivy record. 

Columbia got a run back in the seventh, making it 8-6. Okay. Close game. Princeton got three in the bottom of the seventh to get it to 11-6. Okay. Comfortable lead. Right? 

Uh, no. Columbia came storming back, getting five in the top of the eighth, and suddenly it was 11-11. No worries. Scannell untied it. And then, after all of those runs and all of those hits, why would anything be easy? 

Reece Rabin walked the lead off man and then gave up a hit. Then he got a double play. Columbia kept it going with a walk, which meant the tying run was on base. Then what? A fly ball to Bandura in right, who squeezed it to end it.

And so Princeton, 3-18 in the Ivy League a year ago, plays today for a shot at the NCAA tournament. Yes, Princeton has to win twice. No, don't sell them short. Not after this weekend. Not with the way this team fought and fought and fought to keep it going.