COMING THROUGH: Princeton High baseball player Tommy Reid takes a swing in recent action. Junior star Reid came through with some clutch hitting to help seventh-seeded PHS advance to the Mercer County Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2005. The Little Tigers fell 4-2 to third-seeded Nottingham last Monday in the semis to move to 13-8. PHS will look to produce another deep run as it competes in the upcoming state tournament. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

For the Princeton High baseball team, getting to open the Mercer County Tournament with a home game proved to the catalyst for a memorable run.

Hosting 10th-seeded Hightstown in the first-round matchup on May 7, seventh-seeded PHS came through with a 4-0 win. 

“We started the week off great, Ben Amon pitched a gem,” said Little Tiger head coach Dave Roberts. 

“We had a pretty good crowd turn out. We probably could have scored a few more runs that day, but we scored enough to win. When your pitcher throws a shutout, you score plenty to win as long as it is one more than they have.”

Roberts was not surprised that Amon came through. “He matched up well with Hightstown the first time he pitched against them,” noted Roberts of the junior who struck out six, walked two, and gave up three hits in the shutout against the Rams.

“He basically shut them out out, giving up one run. I was really confident going into that day with him on the mound. He just did what I expected of him, to be honest, and got us rolling for sure.”

The Little Tigers kept rolling in the quarterfinal last Wednesday as they overcame a 5-1 deficit entering the fifth inning at second-seeded powerhouse Allentown to pull out an 8-7 triumph.

“I can’t say enough about the team’s resiliency, that day was one of the most intense baseball games I have ever been a part of,” said Roberts as Tommy Reid went 3-of-5 with two runs with Paul Cooke going 2-of-4 and scoring two runs, Teddy Durbin chipping in two hits and two RBIs, and Alec Silverman contributing a hit and two RBIs to spark the rally.

“There were some tough calls from the umpires, they took a home run away from us. The great thing was that they used all of that negative momentum and turned it into a positive. The guys banded together so much. We put it on them those last three innings; we just flipped the game on them. We put together amazing at-bats and it was incredible from everybody.”

The win put the Little Tigers in the county semis for the first time in 13 years.

“It is awesome; as far as anybody can remember, I think the only other guy who did it was John Miranda, who made it to the semis with the 2001 team and the 2005 team that I was an assistant on,” said Roberts, referring to the late Miranda, who served as the baseball coach before becoming PHS athletic director.

Although PHS was edged 4-2 in the semis by third-seeded Nottingham last Monday at Bob DeMeo Field in Hamilton, it showed how much it has progressed from falling 16-1 to the Northstars in a regular season game on April 13.

“I think we match up well with them in terms of our pitching and the lineup,” said Roberts, whose team dropped to 13-8 with the loss and will look to produce another deep run as it competes in the upcoming state tournament.

“You are grinding it out, it could be anybody at this point. It is a mission to prove to that team that the first game was a fluke.”