Gehrig's Division Title in Sight This Weekend

The Columbia baseball team enters its final Ivy weekend with one goal—clinching its first Gehrig Division title since 1993. The Lions, 11-5 in Ivy play, sit three games up from the Princeton Tigers, who will play two doubleheaders against Cornell starting Friday. The Lions can clinch the division title if they either win two games or win at least one and Princeton loses once. If they win the division, they will face the Rolfe Division winner—likely Dartmouth—in an Ivy playoff next weekend.
The Light Blue was swept in a doubleheader by Manhattan College on Wednesday as the Jaspers’ pitching staff dominated, surrendering just two runs combined. However, a lack of offensive production has not been a problem of late for the Lions. Last weekend in Ithaca, they scored 28 runs in four games and never scored fewer than six runs.
Columbia’s rising offense will face one of its toughest tests of the season against Penn, the team with the lowest team ERA in the Ivy League.
The Quakers are led by sophomore right-hander Todd Roth, who is sporting a 1.89 ERA, has struck out 49 batters, and has been a workhorse, throwing 57 innings. Roth, who is 4-4 on the season, has not gotten great run support. Last weekend against Princeton, he pitched all six innings, giving up just one run, but Penn fell 1-0. Freshmen Jeremy Maas and Sam Gilbert are two other starters on the Quaker staff with sub-3.00 ERAs.
Maas has not started since tweaking his elbow against Cornell two weeks ago, and Penn’s two other starters, Paul Cusick and Robbie Seymour, have struggled, compiling ERAs over 6.00. In Cusick’s last two Ivy starts, he has given up 13 earned runs over seven innings.
For the Lions, the pitching order is a subject of interest to outside observers. Unless Princeton loses twice on Friday, Columbia will have the opportunity to clinch the division title at home on Saturday rather than wait until Sunday. With this opportunity, there has been speculation that seniors Jon Baumann and Bill Purdy may pitch on Saturday. Baumann has pitched well since joining the team after basketball season, throwing two complete games in four starts and posting a 3.27 ERA. Purdy is coming off one of his best starts of the season last Sunday at Cornell, where he pitched seven innings, gave up two runs, and walked none.
However, head coach Brett Boretti has been consistent with his rotation throughout league play and never likes to divulge his matchups before the weekend.
Boretti’s other Ivy starters are junior Joe Scarlata and freshman Geoff Whitaker. Both earned victories at Cornell after being hit hard at home against Princeton.
Regardless of the order of appearance, the Columbia staff will face an offense that has struggled to score runs. Penn is hitting .293, third best in the Ivy League, but the Quakers have scored around five runs a game. By comparison, Dartmouth, the league leader, is scoring nearly eight runs per game.
The Columbia staff will get its first chance to approach or claim an Ivy title at noon Saturday, and Sunday’s games at Penn will start at noon as well.