Lions Finally Catch a Break

Aaron Stewart And Jon Kamran — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 23:00:00 -0500

After 16 grueling games, the Columbia baseball team finally ended its losing streak this weekend, but their new winning ways didn’t last long.

The Lions (4-27, 2-14) were swept—for the fifth straight time versus an Ivy League opponent—by Cornell (9-14, 4-6) on Saturday, 5-3 and 9-6, before ending their excruciating drought with a romping 10-4 victory in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. Columbia then lost game two by the same score, cutting short any hopes of reversing their fortunes into a winning streak.

One strike away from victory in game one on Saturday with a two-run lead to protect, freshman Bill Purdy delivered what could have been the final pitch of the game to Cornell leadoff man Seth Gordon. Gordon sent the ball deep to the right-field gap and off the glove of senior center fielder Ray Waters, knotting the game at 3-3.

Waters began a potential game-winning rally with a single in the bottom of the inning, but after a ground out and two consecutive intentional walks, a fielder’s choice, and another ground out ended the rally and sent the game to extra innings.

Purdy surrendered his only two earned runs of the game in the extra frame, and Cornell closer Walker Toma retired the Light Blue lineup in order to snatch a 5-3 heartbreaker away from Columbia.

“I thought we should’ve won the game,” head coach Paul Fernandes said. “I thought we should’ve made the play. When they did tie it up and we went and got the bases loaded we weren’t focused. We weren’t aggressive enough in that situation and that winded up costing us the game.”

The Big Red’s momentum carried into game two, as they took advantage of senior co-captain Brendan Quinn’s lack of control by scoring six runs in the first two innings.

”What you’d like to do is score first and change the momentum of the game,” Fernandes said. “For them to score three in the first and then the second it just puts you back in the same hole you were before.”

Quinn lasted only 1.2 innings before being pulled for sophomore Dan Bajger. The Lion offense kept the game close through two innings with three runs of their own, but Bajger surrendered another three to blow the game open 9-3, and a last-gasp Columbia rally fell short.

On Sunday, the Lions pounded out 13 hits and posted double-digit runs for the first time all season en route to routing the Big Red in game one, but then mustered just three earned runs off Cornell starter Dan Gala in losing the second game 10-4.

“That’s been our season,” Fernandes said. “If you look at the way we’ve gone, we get an awful lot of days where we get two or three runs and five, six, or seven hits, so the second game probably is more indicative of the way that we’ve kind of played over the course of the season.”

In game one, the middle of the order—sophomores Andrew Ward and Tighe Holden, and freshman Henry Perkins—went a combined 8-for-11 with six RBI and seven runs scored, by far the most that part of the lineup has produced all season.

“You like to see that breakout kind of thing like we did in the first game, but unfortunately we haven’t done that as often as we would like,” Fernandes added.

As the Lions clung to a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth with one out and a Cornell runner on second, a deep drive was sent toward right-center. Ward tracked the ball down and made a diving catch, then got up and fired to second, picking off the wandering base runner and extinguishing the Big Red rally.

“It was off a righty bat, so it was kind of tailing back towards me,” Ward said. “Ray [Waters] and I were both going for it, and I figured if I dove and missed it he would’ve had it off the wall, and luckily I came up with it.”

The Lions pulled away with four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Craig Rodwogin recorded an RBI single and Holden mashed a three-run homer to right, extending Columbia’s lead to 7-1.

After Cornell got two back in the top of the fifth, the Lions put the game away with a three-run sixth, including three consecutive hits which culminated with a Perkins two-RBI double.

Freshman John Baumann earned the win despite issuing five walks, throwing six solid innings and giving up only one earned run while striking out seven.

“You can kind of think of it as damage control,” Baumann said. “A lot of times you know you’re going to give up some hits, but the biggest thing is trying to get out of jams. A perfect example is that great play that Andrew Ward made.”

The Columbia bats failed to produce in game two, however, as Gala hurled 7.2 strong innings, giving up 10 hits and a walk while fanning six in halting the Lions’ momentum.

“I think throwing two pitches for strikes in most situations does it for you,” Fernandes said of Gala. “If he can lead with a curve ball and get ahead, and then he can spot his fastball, it makes it a lot more difficult.”

Freshman Matt Berninger started for the Lions and took the loss after surrendering four earned runs on seven hits through 4.1 innings. All four relievers who threw after Berninger yielded at least one earned run each as the Big Red scored at least once in each of the last five innings.

“Obviously coming off a win, getting that losing streak over with, we were confident going into that second game,” Ward said. “Things just didn’t fall our way.”

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Lions Finally Catch a Break