After Season of Mixed Results and Departures of Key Seniors, Softball Has Chip on Its Shoulder

The 2006 season was full of ups and downs for the Columbia softball team.

Its season started shakily at the Buzz Classic in Marietta, Georgia, where the team went 1-3 against tough competition in Gardener-Webb, North Carolina State, Miami of Ohio, and Georgia Southern. After the Buzz Classic, the squad went to the Rebel Games in Kissimmee, Florida for the sixth year in a row, and won five straight games to begin the tournament, ending the tournament with an impressive 7-3 record.

Over the next two weeks, however, the Light Blue hit a slide, losing seven of nine including a five-game losing streak. During that five game decline, the Lions' offense averaged less than three runs per game while allowing almost eight runs per game.

After a 7-2 loss to Monmouth in the first game of a doubleheader, the Light Blue started what would become a new run, winning eight games out of 10, culminating in a six-game win streak. This win streak brought the team right into the Ivy League season, with the final victory coming against Dartmouth in the Ivy opener. Tough defensive plays and skillful pitching were highlights of the streak, with Columbia pitchers tossing two shutouts and allowing a maximum of three runs.

In the nightcap of the doubleheader against Dartmouth, however, the Lions cooled off, losing 5-2 to the Big Green. That game began a seven-game losing streak that included three sweeps in less than a week. The Light Blue lost two one-run games to Harvard, followed by consecutive losses to Manhattan and Princeton. The Lions broke their newest losing streak in a big way against Penn in Philadelphia, however, as the Light Blue swept the doubleheader with each win coming by eight runs, with the first game as an 8-0 shutout in which the Lions scored most of their runs later in the game. This momentum translated into the second game, and the Light Blue scored four runs in the top of the first inning, winning 9-1.

The rest of the season, however, was not so kind to the Lions. The team went 2-4 in its final six games, splitting contests with each Iona and Yale and being swept by Cornell in the last two games of the season. The team ended the season with a 22-25-1 overall record, including a 4-8 record in the Ivy League.

The graduated senior pitchers Jackie Adelfio and Maiya Chard-Yaron anchored the team, pitching the brunt of the innings on the season. Adelfio led the team in wins with 15 and started 27 games for the Lions. Chard-Yaron was a double threat, starting 17 games on the mound, throwing two shutouts-including a no hitter-and leading the team in batting average and on base percentage on the season. These seniors left a large gap for the team to fill, both on the mound and in the batters' box.