Williams, Forthun Show Promise for Columbia Playoffs Against Big Green

While the biggest accomplishment of the weekend for the Columbia baseball team was its second Lou Gehrig Division title, contributions from two players—its struggling first baseman and underappreciated catcher—showed why the Lions, who have already set a school record for league wins, expect to win in a playoff this weekend against Dartmouth.

Junior first baseman Ron Williams led Columbia in hitting last season with a .374 batting average. He also led the team with 36 RBI. This season, after starting off hot, Williams saw his batting average drop below .230.

“I’ve just been hitting balls at people,” he said.

After starting off this weekend’s first game against Penn with two ground ball outs, Williams stepped to the plate in the fifth inning with runners on first and second and his team trailing 4-3. He promptly singled to left field, scoring Noah Cooper to tie the game, and Mike Roberts followed with the game winning single.

“It was a slider and I was just trying to hit the ball hard and at least put someone in scoring position,” Williams said.

In his next at-bat, which did not come until game two, Williams hit a two-run home run in the first inning to give the Lions a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the sixth inning, with his team holding a 5-3 lead, Williams hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored shortstop Alex Ferrera. Two innings later he added on to the Columbia lead with another RBI single.

On the year Williams is hitting just .237 and has reached base at a lower rate than any starter but Ferrera. Williams, however, rode his five RBI from the first doubleheader in the second where he went 5-for-9 with four RBI. For the weekend, Williams had eight hits and nine RBI. On a team that has needed more production from the middle of the order, his hot hitting could provide a large boost this weekend.

“The past two weekends he has been hitting the ball better,” head coach Brett Boretti said. He continued: “Ronny’s done a good job adjusting. He’s getting pitched to very carefully.”

Williams’ game-tying RBI single may have been something new for him this season, but such timely hits have come to be expected of the team’s catcher, Dean Forthun.

Forthun is by no means the team’s top hitter. He is fifth on the team in batting average at .294 and has driven in just 16 runs all season batting seventh. But twice this weekend against Penn, he came to the plate with the game tied and gave Columbia the lead.

In the first game of the weekend, Forthun stepped up to the plate with a runner on third and two outs. With the Lions and Quakers knotted up at two, Forthun singled to break the tie. In the second game of the afternoon, Forthun came to bat with the game tied and once again he delivered, singling home Mike Malfettone.
“I really think Dean is the unsung MVP of this team,” Boretti said.

Boretti’s basis for this doesn’t just come from this weekend. Two weekends ago when Columbia was playing divisional foe Princeton with its Gehrig lead in the balance, Forthun tripled home two runs to break a 4-4 tie.

“He’s a gamer,” Boretti said. “He rises to the occasion and it shows through in those situations.” If that weren’t enough, Boretti was quick to point out that throughout the season, Forthun caught every inning of all four weekend games.

On a weekend that saw this Lions team take its place in history, the consistent clutch hitting of Forthun and the re-emergence of Williams put the team in position to make more history.