Princeton baseball, lacrosse make NCAA runs

1995-96 has seen the Tigers reestablish dominance in1995-96 has seen the Tigers reestablish dominance inin the realm of Ivy League athletics. According to the Chinese calendar, 1996 is the Year of the Rat. But any Princeton sports fan could make a persuasive case that 1996 is the year of another animal -- the Tiger. While their Ivy League competitor's seasons have all ended, Princeton can boast of not just one, but two, teams continuing in the national playoff hunt. The Tigers baseball squad will play for a spot in the College World Series this weekend in Tuscaloosa, Ala., while the men's lacrosse team participates in the Final Four in College Park, Md. The Tigers' road to the Ivy hardball title could not have been better scripted. Defending champion Penn ran out to a big lead in the Gehrig Division race, before Princeton swept four games from the Quakers. A split the next weekend set up a one-game showdown with Penn for the Gehrig crown, a game Princeton won 5-4. Had the Tigers dropped any one of the five contests with the Quakers, the division title would have stayed in West Philly. The task didn't get any easier for Coach Tom O'Connell's team. They then met Harvard, the Rolfe Division winner, in the Ivy championship series. After disposing of the Crimson in two straight, Princeton swept another pair from Rider in the NCAA Play-in series and earned one of 48 berths in the NCAA Division I tournament for the first time in five years. It's been quite a turnaround for the team which ended 1995 in the Gehrig cellar. Since April 27, the Tigers are 11-2, upping their mark to 26-19 overall. The NCAA rewarded Princeton for its efforts with the sixth, and lowest, seed in the difficult South I regional. "We've been in the NCAAs before and we've gone south," said an unsurprised O'Connell. "I felt all along we'd go south." The Tigers' first opponent in the double-elimination format event will be Alabama, who they will meet tonight at 8 p.m. The Crimson Tide (45-17), who stood No.3 in Baseball America magazine's most recent national rankings, are expected to emerge from a regional which also includes No. 15 Virginia and No. 19 South Alabama. Although no decision had yet been made, O'Connell indicated a preference for Chris Yarborough and Ben Smith as his pitchers this weekend. At the plate, the Orange and Black will need stellar performances from their big hitters, especially conference home run king Mike Ciminiello and second baseman Dave Ekelund, all-Ivy picks at catcher and second base, respectively. But regardless of what happens in the NCAA tourney, the Tigers have had a remarkable year. "Our season's a success -- there's nothing disappointing about our season," O'Connell said. "Our goal was to be competitive after a disappointing year last year." While the baseball team aimed for competitiveness, the Princeton lacrosse program only shoots for one thing -- a national title. Currently No.1 in the Face-off magazine poll, including all nine first place votes, Coach Bill Tierney has built what is, arguably, the showpiece program in Ivy League athletics. Tierney's squad ran off a perfect 6-0 record in Ivy League play, including a 19-4 drubbing of Penn on April 3 at their brand new Class of 1952 Stadium. In a national semi-final, the Tigers (12-1) will face Syracuse (9-3) on Saturday afternoon at the University of Maryland's Byrd Stadium. Between them, the two schools have won the last four national titles, Princeton's coming in 1992 and 1994. Featuring a bevy of young stars, including Ivy League Co-Player of the Year Jesse Hubbard and four other first-team all-Ivy picks, Princeton is favored to take home the championship. Last Saturday, they played an inspired game in demolishing No.8 Towson St., 22-6. The Tigers set a number of NCAA scoring records in the contest. But Princeton knows that it will have to play flawless defense to get past high-powered Syracuse. "We're not expecting them to do anything but try to get a lot of shots off," Tierney said. But don't expect the Tigers to revert to their famous slow-down system of past championship seasons. "My kids would kill me if I did that now," Tierney said. Should Princeton capture a third national title in five years this weekend, it would be a remarkable feat. Consider: the Tigers are the only team in the Final Four that does not make use of the maximum number of scholarships, for lacrosse. Princeton, like all Ivy League member schools, is forbidden to offer any athletic scholarships at all, while the Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, and Virginia all offer the full 12.6. The program's success is a direct result of the Princeton name, the regional nature of the sport, and what Tierney calls "socio-economic " reasons. "Private schools tend to turn out the better lacrosse players, and they're more likely to do well academically," Tierney said. "Secondly, lacrosse hasn't become so big-time...realistically, there is no pro lacrosse, so kids are still willing to make the sacrifice [full tuition], as opposed to a partial scholarship somewhere else." A lacrosse title or a trip to the College World Series would be the perfect ending to a nearly perfect sports year in Princeton. A year which includes an outright Ivy football crown, a stunning NCAA men's basketball tourney upset of UCLA, and Ivy titles in field hockey and women's lacrosse. It may not conform to the Chinese zodiac, but this was the year of the Tiger.