Softball sweeps doubleheader against Marist

For the first time this season, the Columbia softball team (8-17, 1-3 Ivy) swept a doubleheader against an opponent with two convincing wins against Marist (4-18). Including the game played on March 15 during the Rebel Games in Florida, the Lions have won three in a row against the Red Foxes this season.

Early in game one, it looked as though the Light Blue might have difficulty with their opponent, as Marist scored two runs in the top of the first inning. Outfielder Ashley Corriss had a leadoff single and came home to score on the second wild pitch thrown by right-hander Jessica Rakonza. At that point, Columbia head coach Kayla Noonan substituted Maureen O’Kane into the game. She picked up the final two outs in the first and kept on rolling with five scoreless innings for her third win of the year.

Kayla Lechler led the second inning with an infield single and Marist head coach Joe Ausanio substituted starter Emily Osterhaus with Caitlin Schell. His personnel switch did not work out nearly as well as Noonan’s, as the Lions proceeded to score six runs off of Schell, who threw six wild pitches and walked six batters trying to find the strike zone in the inning.

Maggie Johnson led off the third inning with a single to center and was brought home by Anne Marie Skylis’ RBI to plate her team’s seventh run of the game. Columbia scored two runs in the fourth and one more in the sixth to take a 10-2 win.

Senior infielder Dani Pineda hit a two-out double for her team’s first hit of the second game. She came around to score on a pair of errors by Marist first baseman Lindsay Durant. Johnson hit her third home run of the year, a two-run shot to left center field to make the score 3-0 at the end of the first inning.

Columbia scored two more runs in the sixth inning. Lechler led off the inning with a single, followed by Johnson’s single to left that allowed Lechler to advance from first to third base with no outs. Christie Taylor’s bunt single scored Lechler, and Aimee Kemp’s single one batter later allowed Johnson to come home, making the score 5-2. Johnson pitched seven innings allowing six hits with three strikeouts and no earned runs in her fifth win of the season.

The Lions return to Ivy League competition this weekend with road games at Dartmouth on April 9 and at Harvard on April 10.