Heavy-Hitting Lions Try For Another Road Win

The Columbia baseball team enters its game today at St. John’s looking to pick up its third win in four games before it starts Ivy play this weekend against Brown and Yale.
The Lions started the season slowly, losing their first eight games at Duke and Pepperdine. Last season, they won just one of their first seven games. On their most recent trip, a nine-game swing at Georgia Southern, Davidson, and Liberty, the team won four of nine games against stiff competition.

Opposing hitters knocked in more than 10 runs on four occasions, including two 20-run performances, but the Columbia bats were alive as well. The Lions averaged more than seven runs per game and have four starters hitting .329 or better. Freshman Nick Cox has met success right away, hitting .330 and leading the team with seven steals.

Every game the team has played thus far has been on the road. This trend continues against the Red Storm, though the game will be played in New York City.

St. John’s enters the day riding a nine-game winning streak with wins over Rutgers, Fairfield, Albany, Long Island, and Cal State Northridge. The Red Storm is 16-4 overall and received four votes in the most recent USA Today/ESPN Top 25 baseball coaches’ poll.

The recently hot Lions’ offense will face a pitching staff with an earned run average that is less than half of its own. Starter George Brown is 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA, only one starter has an ERA greater than 3.50, and the staff has a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.2.

The Light Blue staff has not been as solid this season. Every regular starter has an ERA above 5.50 and in comparison to St. John’s, the staff has struck out fewer than half of the same number of batters.

Columbia has been facing strong offenses and has needed to start more people than it usually does, since the team played almost every day of its most recent trip.
One key in the game will be how the starting pitcher attacks the Red Storm bats. As a whole, St. John’s is hitting .316 and has an on base percentage of nearly four. While the Red Storm does not hit a lot of home runs, it has outhit its opponents by nearly five a game. Six starters are hitting above .350. In the team’s last series, which was played at Rutgers, the offense averaged more than nine runs per game.

For Columbia, a win or a competitive game would be a strong step before it welcomes Brown and Yale to New York this weekend. The Lions were swept at both Brown and Yale last season.

Tuesday’s game begins at 3 p.m.