ON THE MOVE: Princeton High baseball player Zach Tesone rounds third base in recent action. Last Saturday, junior first baseman Tesone had two hits in a losing cause as 16th-seeded PHS fell 11-2 to No. 1 Notre Dame in the first round of the Mercer County Tournament. The Little Tigers have won four of their last six games after a 1-10 start. PHS will look to keep on the right track as it plays at WW/P-N on May 8 in an MCT consolation game and at Hamilton on May 9 before hosting Nottingham on May 10. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Continuing its recent surge, the Princeton High School baseball team opened the Mercer County Tournament (MCT) on a high note.

Hosting Trenton last Wednesday in an MCT play-in game, the 16th-seeded Little Tigers topped the No. 17 Tornadoes 9-3. Andrew Frain led the way, going 2-of-4 with two runs and four RBIs while Ben Gross went 2-for-3 with three runs and Hayden Reyes had two hits with a run and an RBI. Rohit Chawla got the win on the mound.

After edging Princeton Day School 3-2 on Thursday in a regular season game for its fourth win in five games, PHS faced a stern test in the opening round of the MCT as it played at top-seeded Notre Dame.

Digging a 4-0 hole in the first inning, the Little Tigers fell short in its upset bid as the Fighting Irish went on to an 11-2 win. Senior third baseman Ellis Bloom and Chawla had RBIs in a losing cause as PHS moved to 5-12 on the season.

The Little Tigers will look to keep on the right track as they play at WW/P-N on May 8 in an MCT consolation game and at Hamilton on May 9 before hosting Nottingham on May 10.

After losing to PHS on Thursday, PDS couldn’t get its bats going as the third-seeded Panthers hosted No. 11 WW/P-S on Saturday in its MCT opener. The Panthers managed only three hits as they fell 5-0. Sophomore pitcher Cole McManimon took the loss as he moved to 5-2.

On Monday, the Panthers had a rematch with WW/P-S in a regular season contest and did hit better as Jake Alu and J.P  Radvany delivered RBIs but it wasn’t enough as the Pirates prevailed 7-4.

PDS, who is 8-7 and will play at Steinert on May 8 in an MCT consolation contest, are still in the hunt for the state Prep B title. The Panthers are slated to host Montclair-Kimberley in the Prep B quarterfinals on May 9 with the winner advancing to the semifinal game on May 14.

Eddie Paparella had three RBIs for third-seeded Hun as it hosted No. 14 Nottingham last Saturday its MCT opener but that wasn’t nearly enough as the Northstars rolled to a 16-4 win. The Raiders made five errors on the day as they trailed 7-1 after two innings and 12-3 after four.

Hun did bounce back from the defeat with a 14-1 win over Peddie last Monday. Post-graduate star Brett Ender led the way, pitching a no-hitter and going 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs as the Raiders improved to 12-5.

Like PDS, Hun has another title to shoot for as it starts play in the state Prep A tournament on May 15 in a quarterfinal contest. The Prep A semis are slated for May 18 with the championship round scheduled to take place at Lawrenceville on May 19. In addition, the Raiders have a regular season game at Robbinsville on May 9.