Baseball Seeks to Extend Ivy Lead

In its first four league home games, the Cornell baseball team (10-19, 4-8 Ivy) surrendered 36 runs to Harvard and Dartmouth, losing three of four. Fortunately for Cornell, 29 of those were given up almost a month ago and in its last six games, the Big Red has given up just 25. The Columbia baseball team (13-21, 8-4) looks to turn around Cornell’s recent resurgence and maintain its two-game Gehrig Division lead as it heads up to Ithaca this weekend for a four-game set.
The Lions, fresh off a split with Fordham on Wednesday, have played the unaccustomed role of division front-runner since winning their first Ivy game. After dropping both games of a doubleheader on Saturday to Princeton, pulling the Tigers into a tie with the Lions for first place, senior aces John Baumann and Bill Purdy led their team to a sweep on Sunday.
As good as Baumann and Purdy were, giving up a combined six runs in two complete games, one cause for concern this weekend may be the ineffectiveness of starters Joe Scarlata and Geoff Whitaker last Saturday . Scarlata, coming off two consecutive complete games, was tagged for seven runs in 5 1/3 innings while Whitaker lasted just 2 innings, giving up eight runs.
The Columbia pitching staff will be facing a Cornell offense that has struggled to put runs on the board much of the season. Three Cornell starters have had very strong seasons , highlighted by junior hitter Nathan Ford’s .389 batting average and team leading 23 RBI. The team as a whole is hitting a paltry .262, second worst in the Ivy League. Of the 10 Big Red players with at least 50 at bats, five are hitting below .250.
Columbia’s strong play this season cannot just be contributed to its improved pitching. Its offense, which struggled to score early in the season, has matched or increased its run production each weekend of league play. The Light Blue is led by its first three hitters, outfielders Nick Cox and Jason Banos and second baseman Henry Perkins. Perkins, who went 6 for 12 last weekend, leads the team with a .373 average, .448 on-base percentage and a .603 slugging percentage. He is also second on the team to Cox, with 13 stolen bases. Meanwhile Banos leads the team with 28 RBI and 31 runs scored.
With these three at the top, the one thing Columbia is missing is a potent bat in the middle of the order. Ron Williams, who led the team with a .374 batting average and 36 RBI last season, went 1 for 15 against Princeton and struck out four times. He is hitting .236 this season and has as many strikeouts, 23, as RBI.
The surging Cornell staff the Lions will face is led by sophomore lefthander Matt Hill. Hill has posted three complete games this season and has an ERA of 3.95. In his last start against Penn, he pitched a complete game, giving up just one run and fanning eight in seven innings. Hill will likely face off against Baumann, who has given up just two runs all season.
Sitting two games up on Princeton, which faces Penn at home this weekend, the Lions play their first game at noon on Saturday with the second half of the doubleheader following 30 minutes after.