Coming off its second consecutive three-win league-opening series, the Columbia baseball team welcomes Army to Andy Coakley Field today looking to keep that momentum heading into the rest of Ivy play. Two years ago, when the Lions were at the beginning of a 32-loss season, they traveled to Army and were swept in three games, scoring just three runs while allowing 23.

Far removed from that disappointing season, this team has found an offensive stride of late. It is averaging almost seven runs a game in its last nine matchups, while its staff put forth perhaps its best weekend of the season, surrendering just 17 runs in four games to Brown and Yale.

Despite a poor nonconference campaign, the Light Blue is expecting to challenge for a Lou Gehrig division title to follow up last season’s .500 league record. If the first weekend of play was any indication, there is no reason to deflate those hopes. Brown and Yale, teams that swept Columbia last season at home, went just 1-3. The defending champion Bears managed just five runs in their two games. Columbia freshman Geoff Whitaker, who struggled early in the season, pitched 7 1/3 innings in the second game against Brown and allowed just two runs.

The Lions’ pitching staff faces an Army offense that has been inconsistent. It scored 23 runs in two games against a team Columbia will face this weekend—Dartmouth—but managed just 20 runs in its last four-game series at home against Bucknell.
As a team, the Black Knights are hitting .270 with just two hitters, freshman shortstop Clint Moore and senior outfielder Cole White, hitting over .300. The Lions, meanwhile, have four starters hitting above .300.

Army enters the series having won just one of its last five games, though it played a competitive series against Patriot League foe Bucknell. The team’s main weakness thus far, like many teams who have played superior nonconference competition, has been pitching. Worse news for the Black Knights may be that whereas Columbia’s pitchers threw well in their first league series, Army’s staff still gave up more than seven runs a game against Bucknell. No Army starter has an earned run average below five and as a whole, the staff has walked 111 batters—nearly fifty more than Columbia’s.

While the Lions have drawn just 63 walks all season, five of nine starters are hitting above .280, including surging second baseman Henry Perkins, who has brought his average up to .361.

Another good sign for Columbia is that against Liberty, whom the Lions batters tagged for thirty runs in a four-game split, Army struggled, losing all three games by at least six runs.

With Harvard and Dartmouth on tap for the weekend in the team’s final games against the Rolfe Division, Columbia has the opportunity to improve upon its 4-14 nonconference record against a staff with an ERA of 6.95.

First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.