The locations and opponents may have changed, but the baseball team experienced deja vu yesterday as the Lions split two Ivy League matchups for the second weekend in a row.
Columbia delivered two strong pitching performances—a trend this season—to sweep Yale on the road on Saturday. But Sundays have been cruel to the Lions this year, as they have won only one game on a Sunday, and the back end of the rotation suffered again this week as Columbia dropped both games of a doubleheader to Brown.
In the slugfest that was game one at Yale, Columbia ace Joe Scarlata, threw another complete game and improved his record to 2-4 on the season. While Scarlata was not as sharp as usual—allowing six earned runs on 10 hits and five walks—he blanked the Bulldogs in the first three innings, enabling the Lions to take a decisive 10-0 lead.
Yale’s starting pitcher didn’t make it out of the second inning during which Columbia put up seven runs, five of which were scored with two outs. Catcher Dean Forthun and third baseman Mike Roberts each knocked in two runs and sophomore outfielder Bobby O’Brien had two hits in the inning. First baseman Ron Williams made a solid contribution going 2-for-4 with three RBI on the day.
Yale scored in each of the last four innings to tighten the game, but Columbia added two runs in the sixth to put the game safely out of reach, 13-9.
Game two featured a win-by-committee for the Lions pitching staff as four arms combined to hold Yale to six runs. Dan Bracey threw 2 1/3 innings to start the game and was relieved by freshman right-hander Harrison Slutsky. Slutsky, who made a sizeable impact in his first campaign, allowed three earned runs over 4 2/3 innings of long relief. He also picked up the favorable decision to even his record at 1-1 for the year.
In a game that featured four lead changes, the Lions drew blood first in the third inning, but Yale reciprocated during its half of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Columbia jumped ahead again in the fourth when the two corner outfielders, Anthony Potter and Billy Rumpke, hit back-to-back two-out RBI singles.
But the see-saw battle continued, and Yale tied the game again in the bottom of the fifth inning. In retaliation, Lions senior stalwart Ron Williams hit a solo homer in the sixth inning that proved to be the decisive blow. Columbia went on to score four times in the next inning, bringing its total to eight.
A three-run homer in the eighth inning brought the Bulldogs within two runs of the Lions but Clay Bartlett closed the door on Yale’s rally. Freshman Pat Lowery earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning that secured the victory.
On Sunday, Columbia’s first game against Brown looked promising after the Lions jumped out to a 5-0 lead on a three-RBI double by O’Brien and a two-RBI single by Williams. Brown starter, Josh Feit, lasted just 2 1/3 innings before being lifted in favor of Matt Boylan, who eventually picked up the win. After three innings, Columbia led 7-5, but the Lions failed to score in the final four frames enabling Brown to sneak past them.
Columbia starter Geoff Whitaker threw five innings and surrendered seven runs, but did not factor in the decision. In the sixth inning, Lowery hit a batter and Alex Ferrera committed a costly error at shortstop that extended the inning. The result was a 9-7 Brown comeback victory in a game that could have been the Lions’.
In game two, it appeared that pitchers on both sides were tossing up beach balls to home plate as 23 runners crossed the plate. After four innings, Brown had a 7-2 lead after lighting up Columbia starter Roger Aquino for seven runs (six earned). Aquino allowed 11 base runners and recorded just 12 outs while failing to keep the Bears from scoring in a single inning.
Brian Valero relieved Aquino and stopped the bleeding, throwing two shutout innings—long enough for the Lions’ bats to get going. The offense responded and scored five runs in the middle three frames capped off when O’Brien hit a game-tying grand slam to straightaway center field.
And thus, a brand new baseball game commenced for the final three innings of play. Each team notched three more runs and the game headed into the ninth inning knotted up at 10 a piece.
With one out, Ferrera smacked a homer to center field to put the Lions ahead 11-10 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but the voracious Bears weren’t done yet. Columbia reliever Joey Mizzoni recorded the first two outs, but surrendered a double to Steve Daniels. The next batter was Matt Colantonio who was 0-for-5 on the day. But Colantonio became the hero when he hit a dramatic walk-off home run to win the game 12-11.
The beautiful weather was ruined as the Lions dropped two winnable games to conclude the second weekend of Ivy play with a 4-4 record.
Columbia will take on Rutgers on Tuesday afternoon before heading to Princeton for a four-game set over the weekend.