The Columbia baseball team is the Ivy League champion. In the decisive third game of the Ivy League championship series, the Lions defeated the Big Green 7-5, earning the Light Blue its first Ancient Eight title since a split title in 1977 with Cornell. The victory gives Columbia the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

After two marathon games on Tuesday that took nearly seven hours to complete, with a total of 49 runs scored between the two clubs, pitchers took control early on Wednesday. Columbia jumped out to a 3-0 lead after five innings thanks to home runs from junior Mike Roberts in the second and freshman Alex Ferrera in the fourth. Freshman pitcher Geoff Whitaker threw four innings of shutout baseball before surrendering five runs to the Big Green in the bottom of the fifth. It would be all the offense Dartmouth got the entire game.

In the top of the sixth, the Lions took the lead for good as Ferrera, who had two home runs prior to today’s contest, slammed a three-run homer to right-center field off freshman Jake Pruner for his second round-tripper in as many innings. Despite Ferrera’s heroics at the plate, the star for Columbia was senior second baseman and pitcher Henry Perkins.

With no outs and men on second and third in the bottom of the sixth, Perkins relieved freshman Dan Bracey and proceeded to shut down the Big Green. Perkins got Columbia out of the threat by striking out Jason Blydell, and Johnathon Santopadre and then forcing a ground out from Erik Bell.

The top of the seventh saw an insurance run in the form of a home run to deep left-center field, by none other than Perkins. In the next three innings, Perkins allowed only one hit and faced only two batters over the minimum possible to secure the victory, while recording the first save of his collegiate career.

The Lions will discover their fate in the NCAA tournament when seedings and regionals are released on May 26 at 12:30 pm on ESPN. The first round of the NCAA tournament begins on May 30 and runs until June 2.