Pitching staff raises game for Ivy competition

At the end of the March, the baseball team’s pitching staff was struggling. At that point, the Lions were just about to enter league play with a 7-11 record and were fresh off a heartbreaking 22-21 loss to St. John’s University. The pitching staff was not giving the offense a reasonable chance to win games, giving up an average of almost eight runs a game. However, the Light Blue (18-14, 9-3 Ivy) has turned things around and is on pace to win the Ivy title, as it currently has a three-game clamp on first place in the Gehrig Division, with just a dozen contests remaining in the regular season.

Columbia’s pitching in April has been spot-on, with a few rare exceptions. From start to finish, rock-solid arms from the bump have silenced opponents’ bats. The Light Blue allowed other teams to reach double-digits in a whopping seven of its first 18 games in 2010. In their past 14 contests, the Lions were only unable to prevent Rutgers from reaching the double-digit mark, and they won that game regardless, 12-11.

The past few weeks have yielded much-improved pitching performances from Columbia’s core rotation: Pat Lowery, Dan Bracey, and freshmen Stefan Olson and Tim Giel.

Bracey has tossed two complete games, including a seven-inning, complete-game shutout against Brown in the Lions’ 7-0 victory over the Bears. Bracey, a junior, has helped fill the void left by Joe Scarlata’s graduation at the end of last year, as he possesses a 4.53 ERA with a 3-3 record and a team-leading 38 strikeouts. Bracey also led the Lions to an eye-popping 24-1 stomping of Harvard, pitching six innings of one-run ball.

Lowery has also established himself as a dominant force on the hill. He leads Columbia with a 4.25 ERA and has limited opponents to a team-best .246 batting average. In Columbia’s 5-2 defeat of Dartmouth, Lowery allowed just two earned runs on five hits over six innings of work. He also hurled a complete game against Princeton, in which he surrendered just one run on four hits and six punch-outs en route to a 7-2 Lions victory.

Columbia’s steady pitching over the past three weeks was on display in its 9-0 shutout against St. Peter’s. Coach Brett Boretti decided to give his starters a day off and used an unprecedented seven relievers in the contest. Harrison Slutsky, Derek Squires, Roger Aquino, Zach Epstein, Clay Bartlett, Max Lautmann, and Ricky Kleban took turns tossing shutout innings, while Columbia provided more than enough run support. The spectacular victory bears testament to the increased consistency the Lions have demonstrated as of late.

While pitching has successfully done its job since the start of Ivy League play, the offense should also be commended. The Light Blue has averaged nearly eight runs per game in its past 14 match-ups, while opponents have scored just over four runs per game on average. Even when Columbia’s pitching slipped against Rutgers, the offense posted 12 runs to edge the Scarlet Knights 12-11.

The Lions still have several hurdles to overcome before clinching a spot in the postseason, including a four-game, season-ending series against Penn. If Columbia’s pitching and hitting can continue to gel, the ball club will have a bona fide shot at reclaiming the Ivy title.