BLOOMING TIME: Princeton High baseball player Ellis Bloom strokes the ball in a game last year. Battle-tested senior third baseman Bloom will be a key player for PHS as it looks to improve on the 4-18 record it posted in 2012. The Little Tigers start regular season play this spring by hosting Hopewell Valley on April 2. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Even though the Princeton High baseball team has struggled in recent years, its players are excited for the 2013 season.

“There is a lot of renewed enthusiasm,” said Princeton head coach Dave Roberts, who guided the Little Tigers to a 4-18 record last year.

“A lot of the guys love baseball and really focus on it. They play a lot in the summer and in the fall.”

Roberts has a lot of arms at his disposal to handle the pitching duties this spring with senior Mike Dunlap, senior Rohit Chawla, junior Ben Gross, senior Andrew Frain, junior Jeff Gleason, and junior Austin Taylor.

“Mike Dunlap will return as a starter; Rohit pitched 35-40 innings last year,” said Roberts, whose team opens the season by hosting Hopewell Valley on April 2.

“Gross is a welcome addition. Frain will round out the rotation. We can use four different starters depending on the week. Gleason and Taylor will be first out of the gate in weeks where we need relievers. I think the staff is very good. It is one of our strengths. They have a lot of experience and lot of talent in the junior class.”

The Little Tigers will need to use experience and creativity to manufacture runs. PHS will feature seniors Ellis Bloom and Zach DiGregorio at the top of the order with juniors Zach Tesone, Gross, senior Frain, and junior Colin Frawley providing punch in the middle.

“We will rely on Bloom and DiGregorio to be the tablesetters,” said Roberts.

“Tesone and Gross will be in three or four, they can get the ball to the gaps. Frain or Frawley in the five spot. We are going to need singles, stolen bases and sacrifice bunts to get runs.”

Around the diamond, the PHS defensive alignment will include Frawley and John Reid at catcher, Tesone and Taylor at first base, senior Matt Farinick at second, Chawla and Gleason at shortstop, Bloom at third with Christian Giles, DiGregorio, Gross, and Frain in the outfield.

The PHS players are hoping that their love of the game will translate to more wins this spring.

“We talked about goals the other day,” said Roberts. “They think of themselves as a .500 team and I tend to agree. If we could get to 10 wins, that would be a great step forward. They have more lofty goals this year.”

In order to achieve those goals, the Little Tigers have to execute better than they have in recent years.

“We need to win the games we are supposed to win or think we should win,” said Roberts.

“We have to close out one-run games; we lost five one-run games last year. If we steal a couple of those, that would be a big help. We need to prevent the bad inning.”