GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNCG baseball team will welcome Princeton for a three-day, four-game series this weekend at the UNCG Baseball Stadium, beginning on Friday, March 8 at 12 p.m. The two schools have met 26 times, most recently in 2017 (March 10-12), since the induction of the UNCG baseball program in 1991 with the Spartans holding a 16-10 edge in the series.
The Spartans, who are 6-4 on the season, are looking to maintain their perfect 5-0 mark at home in the process. UNCG will open with Phillip Sanderson (1-1, 7.11 ERA) on Friday, who is opposing Ryan Smith (1-0, 0.00 ERA). Princeton will send Andrew Gnazzo (1-0, 1.59 ERA) and James Proctor (0-1, 11.57 ERA) in Saturday's doubleheader, while the Spartans have not announced their starters. UNCG will close out the series by sending Jeremiah Triplett (1-0, 2.55 ERA) to the mound on Sunday, while the Tigers have not announced a starter.
THINGS OF NOTE ABOUT PRINCETON / UNCG SERIES
-The Spartans have played five of the eight schools that currently make up the Ivy League since the program's induction in 1991. UNCG has not faced off against Brown and Dartmouth, and recently squared off against Penn for the first-time last weekend. The Spartans have played a combined 43 games against Columbia (1x), Cornell, (3x), Harvard (5x), Penn (3x), Princeton (26x) and Yale (5x). The Spartans, who are 27-15-1 all-time against these schools, have played 42 of the 43 games in Greensboro. The lone exception coming in 2015, when UNCG squared off against Columbia in Wilmington, N.C.
-In their 43 meetings against Ivy League teams, the Spartans have outscored their opponents 330-180, averaging 7.7 runs per contest along the way. UNCG has eclipsed double-digit runs on 16 occasions, including a 16-run output against Princeton on March 8, 2015, under Link Jarrett, that marks the most runs by a UNCG team against an Ivy League opponent. There have been seven extra-inning affairs with Ivy League schools and UNCG is 3-4 in those contests. The most recent extra-inning contest resulted in a 6-5 UNCG victory in 13 innings of game two of a doubleheader against Penn on March 2, 2018. That eclipsed the previous mark of 12 innings, which also resulted in an UNCG win (11-10) on March 14, 2014 against Princeton.
-The Spartans have faced Princeton 26 times in program history (since 1991) and own a 16-10 lead in the all-time series. UNCG won seven of the first eight meetings in the series, which came between March 21, 2006 and March 17, 2008 under former head coach Mike Gaski. And, while the Spartans won the six of the next seven contests in the series, also under Gaski, the six wins were later vacated by the NCAA Infractions committee. Under current head coach Link Jarrett, UNCG won the first three meetings against the Tigers, which spanned between March 20, 2013 and March 15, 2014. However, since Princeton's 11-1 win on March 16, 2014, the two programs are 5-4 in the series, with UNCG holding a one-game edge in that span.
-UNCG and Princeton share two common opponents on their 2019 schedules—George Mason and Penn. The Spartans recently concluded their three-game set against Penn, all resulting in victories, and will face George Mason for a three-game series on April 12-14. While UNCG was squaring off against Penn a week ago, Princeton traveled to Fairfax, Va., for a season-opening three-game series against George Mason. The Tigers opened the 2019 slate with a 5-3 win, but dropped the next two to the Patriots by scores of 6-0 and 7-6 (10 innings). Princeton will not face Penn until April 13-14, when they head to Philadelphia.
-Princeton was picked to finish sixth in the 2019 Ivy League preseason poll. The Tigers have appeared in 12 of 26 Ivy League Championship Series, while Dartmouth (12), Harvard (8), Columbia (7), Yale (6), Penn (4), Cornell (3) and Brown (1) have also made appearances.
-The Ivy League has won five games in the NCAA Baseball Regionals over the last four years, with Columbia advancing to the regional final in Coral Gables in 2015 and Yale advancing to the regional finale in Corvallis in 2017.
DUE UP NEXT FOR THE SPARTANS
UNCG will host Elon on Tuesday, March 12 at 4 p.m. The two former Southern Conference rivals split last season's series 1-1, winning on the road at the other team's home. UNCG snagged a 7-5 victory at Elon on March 7, 2018, but the Phoenix avenged the loss on May 15, 2018 with an 8-7 win in Greensboro.
