Nationally Ranked St. John’s Storms Past CU Baseball Team

In its final nonconference game before the Ivy League season opens this weekend, the Columbia baseball team coughed up an early lead and fell to St. John’s 10-5.

Making its annual stop in Queens, Columbia found itself ahead early against nationally ranked St. John’s. The Red Storm, currently ranked #25 in the country, drew first blood by scoring one run in the bottom of the first off of Columbia starter Henry Perkins.

But Perkins managed to shut St. John’s down in the next two innings, and his teammates responded by putting up a three spot in the top of the third inning. After left fielder Jason Banos doubled in center fielder Nick Cox, Perkins helped his own cause by hitting an RBI triple and then came home to score on a wild pitch.

Columbia added another run in the top of the fourth inning, but the Lions were unknowingly in the eye of a ruthless storm. St. John’s came out swinging, plating four runs against Lions reliever Max Lautmann in their half of the fourth to take a one-run lead.

But Perkins refused to let the Lions go down and reclaimed the game’s momentum. After reaching base on one of the four errors St. John’s committed, Perkins stole second base and scored on a Mike Roberts single.

But with the game tied, Lautmann was unable to hold the lead. With two outs, the Red Storm had a runner on first when Lautmann hit and walked consecutive batters before allowing an RBI single to tilt the momentum of the game back to St. John’s.

The Lions offense, which had recently heated up, was done scoring for the evening, and the Red Storm took control. Clay Bartlett allowed another St. John’s run in two innings of work, and Joey Mizzoni was roughed up for three more runs, including a two run homer, while pitching the eighth inning.

The Lions have been anticipating all along that their matchups with tough opponents would reap benefits for them once Ivy League play begins. Although the team has amassed just four wins, the pitching and offense are starting to look sharper.

Columbia held a top-25 team to just seven runs through the first seven innings and put up five of their own against a formidable pitching staff. The Lions could not hold on to win, but competing with St. John’s should be sufficient for simulating tense situations in Ivy League play.

While Columbia can hope that its tough preseason schedule will pay off, only its performance on the field will tell. And that performance is expected to show up this weekend when Columbia hosts Brown and Yale at Andy Coakley Field to start the Ivy League season.