Tom Pauly and the Princeton baseball team challenged the heart of the Harvard lineup on a day when they could more than afford to do so.

Pauly came in and struck out senior Brian Lentz and sophomore Schuyler Mann in the bottom of the eighth after Princeton intentionally walked the bases loaded to end the Crimson’s best chance of escaping yesterday’s doubleheader with a win. Pauly closed out that game, a 2-0 Princeton win, just as he had closed out a 5-1 decision earlier in the afternoon, leaving Harvard (8-15, 3-5 Ivy) winless and befuddled by its collective hitting slump.

Still, with Brown splitting its doubleheader with Columbia yesterday and the entire Red Rolfe Division languishing below the .500 mark, the Crimson’s record is good enough for a three-way tie for the division lead. Meanwhile, Princeton (14-15, 7-1) increased its lead in the Lou Gehrig Division over Penn.

Princeton and Harvard have played each other for the lion’s share of the Ivy League Championships in the past eight years, but the focus after yesterday’s action was less on rivalry or history than it was on the Crimson’s current futility.

“Losing to Princeton hurts, but we’re 3-5 in the Ivies now, that hurts in itself,” senior pitcher Kenon Ronz said. “They’re [all] Ivy games.”

In both games, the Crimson struggled to get on base, and Harvard’s No. 3 through 6 hitters went a combined 3-for-25 on the day. Harvard has scored only six runs in its last 46 innings.

“We didn’t get much from seven spots in the lineup today, except for [Zak] Farkes and [Lance] Salsgiver, who battled their tails off to get on base,” Walsh said. “Right now, we’re anemic.”

Weak hitting and poor defense ruined solid outings from senior Kenon Ronz and sophomore Mike Morgalis. Ronz was particularly effective in the second game, striking out nine and allowing one earned run in 8.2 innings, but wound up a hard-luck loser.

Princeton 2, Harvard 0

In the bottom of the eighth, after a one-out single by Salsgiver and a double Farkes smoked to deep right, the Crimson had runners on second and third with junior slugger Trey Hendricks in the on-deck circle. Princeton opted to have Princeton starter Mark Siano (2-1) intentionally walk Hendricks, loading the bases, and face Lentz and Mann head on.

It was a daring challenge, but one made easy for Princeton coach Scott Bradley with Pauly coming in from the bullpen. The righty—last summer’s Cape Cod League postseason MVP—struck out Lentz and Mann on seven straight fastballs. He pitched two more hitless innings to pick up the save.

Lentz and Mann each went down swinging—Lentz on a high checked swing, Mann swinging and missing completely.

“Pauly’s legit,” Walsh said. “If you do not get to the starter by the seventh or eighth innings, then you are in trouble. But Pauly, really, he’s a one-pitch guy. You’ve got to make contact with that fastball.”

No one on the team made contact with a fastball for most of the game, or many other Princeton offerings. Siano held Harvard to three hits in 6.1 innings, and none until a Salsgiver single in the fourth.

By then, Princeton had gotten the only run it would need off of Ronz (1-2), who pitched a spectacular game but watched helplessly as one of his pitches got past Lentz in the top of the fourth with a man on second. The pitch went all the way to the backstop, and Lentz was unable to recover before the runner scored.