Successful weekend brings optimism for Ivy play

The Columbia Lions baseball team pleasantly surprised its supporters this past weekend, sweeping a four-game set with Bucknell in their first home series of the season. It was the first weekend sweep for this program since the stretch run of 2008, which resulted in an Ivy League championship, and it gave me a chance to finally see the 2010 Lions in action. Here are my observations on the feel-good weekend…

…The starting pitching staff looks like it may in fact be a strong suit of this team, and this is without doubt the pleasant surprise of the Lions’ season thus far. In the past two years, Columbia has been challenged with replacing three stars in the rotation, Bill Purdy, CC ’08, John Baumann, CC ’08, and Joe Scarlata, CC ’09. The Lions entered this season without a senior in the rotation and low expectations for the staff as a whole, and yet the group has come together nicely, especially at the front of the rotation. Dan Bracey, freshman Stefan Olson,and Pat Lowery all had great starts this weekend, but a battle remains for the fourth spot.

Freshman Tim Giel got the start in the fourth game this weekend and was solid, but by no means has he claimed the spot from Geoff Whitaker. Giel has been great the first time through the order this season, reflected by his solid relief outings in the early part of the year. On Sunday, he retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, with the only baserunner reaching on an infield error, before running into some trouble in the middle innings. It is still not clear if Giel has the ability to be a starter for the Ivy campaign, but he has emerged as Columbia’s most reliable pitcher over one to two innings and will certainly have a prominent role in the bullpen, likely as the closer, if he does not win the fourth starter’s job.

Whitaker was forced to keep pace with Giel from the bullpen this weekend, but he impressed me with his performances. He was efficient in game two on Saturday, earning his first win of the season through two solid relief innings. Unfortunately, he had far less luck on Sunday. He entered game three in a save situation with men on first and third and a 5-2 lead before allowing the three runs that sent the game into extra innings—but none of the runs were earned.

The first batter he faced in the inning was Bucknell’s powerful cleanup hitter, Andrew Brouse. After falling behind 2-1 in the count, Whitaker masterfully set Brouse up with an outside breaking ball that clipped the outside part of the plate. At 2-2, Whitaker attacked Brouse with an inside fastball, earning a tailor-made double play ball that out-of-position Jon Eisen, at third base, couldn’t handle. Instead of a double play and handshakes, the great pitch yielded one run, no outs, and another baserunner. In the next at-bat, Whitaker stayed confidently aggressive, working ahead to an 0-2 count, before wasting another outside breaking ball in the dirt outside. It would prove to be another magnificent set-up pitch, as Whitaker once again came inside with the hard stuff at 1-2 and once again coaxed a weak ground ball toward third base. For the second time, Eisen bobbled the ball and couldn’t get an out, making it a one-run game. The only hit that Whitaker gave up that inning tied the game, but I was actually very impressed, not disappointed, with his performance. His approach was perfect, and he threw 15 of 19 pitches for strikes in the inning. At this point, he and Giel seem relatively interchangeable as the fourth starter/bullpen ace.

…Infield defense may be a weakness again for this team. Eisen’s two errors at third on Sunday were preceded by a Nick Crucet error at second base that began the inning. In the following game, shortstop Alex Ferrera committed two errors in the four-run Bucknell sixth that gave the Bison their first lead of the weekend. In the end, the Lions committed eight errors on Sunday and all of them were in the infield, a completely unacceptable reality considering the fact that Columbia plays on an all-turf field. At least Bucknell appreciated the true surface—despite being swept, it committed just one error the entire weekend.

…The freshmen are for real, especially Olson and Nick Ferraresi. Olson had another stellar outing in game two on Saturday, and may have moved up into the number-two spot in the rotation heading into Ivy play next weekend. Ferraresi, on the other hand, ended his weekend with a bang. After a magical start to the season for the freshman right fielder, Ferraresi’s offense had begun to slide a bit heading into the Bucknell series. This trend continued for most of this series, as he had just two hits and no RBI on the weekend heading into his third at-bat of game four on Sunday. But after Bucknell took its first lead of the weekend in the sixth inning of that game, Ferraresi regained his focus, smacking a double off the center field wall in the bottom of the inning. Two innings later, the first-year right fielder slammed a clutch two-run homer to center, which cut the deficit to one and set up the Lions for their second walk-off victory of the afternoon in the following inning. I love Bobby O’Brien both as a person and a baseball player, but a freshman with that kind of big play ability deserves his spot in the lineup. Ferraresi and sophomore DH Alex Aurrichio (who had five hits and five RBI this weekend including a scary opposite field home run) could anchor the middle of the Columbia order for years to come.

…Most of the lineup is still in flux. The only sure things on the lineup card for the start of Ancient Eight play next weekend will be Dean Forthun at catcher, Aurrichio at DH, and Jay Banos at first base. After that, there are eight or nine players in the mix for the final six starting spots.

Tom Di Benedetto is a Columbia College junior majoring in history.
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