In its second extended road trip before the start of Ivy League play, the Columbia softball team had more to deal with than just the opposing teams on its schedule.
Mother Nature made her presence felt in College Park, Md. with heavy rains that left the playing fields soaked for most of the weekend and forced officials to cancel two games against Stony Brook and Seton Hall in the Terrapin Invitational.

The Lions got what they could out of the remaining three games on their slate, picking up their fourth win of the season on Friday against Mount St. Mary’s, 6-3. Freshman pitcher Maggie Johnson continued her red-hot start to the season, gaining her third win of the season. In the first complete game of her collegiate career, the right-hander gave up three runs and scattered six hits over seven innings of work.

Shortstop Keli Leong picked up right where she left off after being named the Magic City Classic tournament MVP last Tuesday, hitting two-for-four with a run and an RBI. Center fielder Jackie Ecker reached base four times, hitting safely twice and drawing two walks for the game.

However, the team’s offense wasn’t nearly as successful in the latter two contests, as the Lions lost to Fordham and Maryland and fell to 4-4 on the season.

Right-handed pitcher Aimee Kemp struggled on Saturday, as the Rams offense jumped on her early for four runs on seven hits in just five innings of work, and handed Kemp her third loss of the season. Johnson finished the game with three strikeouts in two shutout innings of relief. Ciji Rich doubled home Chantee Dempsey in the second inning for the team’s only run of the game in a 4-1 defeat.

Sunday marked the Lions’ toughest game of the season thus far against the Maryland Terrapins. Aimee Kemp stepped up from her sub-par performances earlier in the season, yielding just two earned runs against the 23rd-ranked team in the nation. After giving up a run early in the first inning, Kemp and the Terrapins’ Meredith Nelles were locked in a pitchers’ duel for most of the game. Kemmp kept the game close throughout, scattering eight hits over six innings of work.

The offense could not get anything going against Nelles and her 1.32 ERA. Stephanie Yagi and Leong managed the team’s only two hits of what was almost a complete-game shutout. Kemp allowed the Terps to score an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Lions dropped their fourth contest of the year, 2-0.

The Lions will travel to Kissimmee, Florida over spring break to play in the Rebel Games. Columbia will play 12 different teams in the eight day tournament including Colgate, Dayton, Lafayette, Manhattan College, and Rhode Island.