Softball Wins Six in a Row over Spring Break, With Two Ivy Wins

In an extremely productive week of work, the Columbia softball team improved its season record to 9-7 by winning seven of ten contests at the Rebel Games in Orlando, Fla. The week included two victories against Ivy League teams and a six-game win streak to close out the trip.

“Over the week we really bonded as a team,” sophomore pitcher Laura Grant said. “Our supporting each other by bonding both on and off the field helped us as the trip went on. With each win we gained more confidence and felt that we could achieve even more, leading to our winning six games in a row.”

Lion pitching, which was the backbone of the team’s success last season, was once more the key to Columbia’s victories. In each of the final five games of the trip, Columbia’s pitching triumvirate of junior Allison Buehler, senior Katie Zunno, and Grant held the opposing offenses to four hits or less.

On Friday, the final day of the trip, Grant and Buehler were particularly dominating. Grant allowed just three hits and struck out 10 in a 2-1 victory over Army, while Buehler surrendered just four hits and struck out 10 in her impressive 3-0 shutout victory over Florida A&M.

The highlight of the swing was the Ivy matches. The Lions defeated Yale 4-2 on March 17, the opening day of the trip, before going on to overpower last season’s Ivy League champion Cornell 5-3 on Thursday.

“We went in looking to do our best, and everyone we are pretty pleased with our results. It was particularly nice to beat two Ivy opponents, so we were all happy,” first year infielder Monica Thompson noted.

In the Light Blue’s victory over the Big Red of Cornell the Lions’ tallied eight hits, twice as many as Cornell, including Thom-pson’s first career home run to lead off the third inning. In the win over Yale, starting pitcher Zunno and Buehler, who came in on relief, combined to strike out 14 batters. Buehler, who pitched the final three innings for her first career save, escaped masterfully from a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Other highlights from the trip included a 4-0 win over Vermont, in which Zunno recorded 11 strikeouts en route to her shutout victory, and a 2-1 win over Central Florida. In the victory over Central Florida, Buehler helped get herself the win by driving in Columbia’s only runs of the game with a long two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth.

“I think that any type of experience is important. Playing time is very valuable, as is getting to work with your teammates. We gained a lot of experience on the trip," Thompson said.

Now 16 games into the season, the Lions will likely need to generate more offensive firepower to match their dominance from the mound in order to continue their winning ways. Currently, first-year first baseman Marisa Marconi, junior outfielder Laura Drazdowski, and senior shortstop Nikki Campbell are leading the team on offense, batting .359, .344, and .333 respectively. Despite these players’ high batting averages, only two Lion players, Buehler and Thompson, have hit home runs this season, and no player has more than six RBIs.

“We have a lot of speed, so we just try and put the ball in play, get on base, and let the other team make errors. We hit two home runs over break, but that is not really our style,” Grant said. “All around we could still use a little improvement. I know that as a pitcher myself, I am still not completely satisfied because there are always things I feel I can do better.”

All three Lions pitchers now have three wins on the season, and Buehler leads the staff with a 1.52 earned run average.

“I think we set our goals pretty high for this season. We think that we can compete for the Ivy League championship, and that is what we are trying to do,” Thompson said. “We are a young team, so I don’t really know if we can do this. But the Cornell game was a big win because it shows we can compete with anyone.”

The Lions, hoping to capitalize on the momentum that carried them through the last six games of their weeklong trip to Florida, gear up for their Wednesday contest against Rider in Lawrenceville, N.J. Then on Thursday, Columbia plays its first home game of the season, hosting St. John’s at Baker Field at 2:30 p.m.