Lions Look to Mound to Maintain Division Lead

After splitting doubleheaders with both Dartmouth and Harvard last weekend, the Columbia baseball team will travel to New England to take on Brown and Yale. The Lions currently sit atop the Lou Gehrig division of the Ivy League and have clearly improved almost every aspect of their game from last season.

In order to remain in first place, however, Columbia will need a strong showing from its pitching staff. The starting pitching has been excellent of late, with good performances against Dartmouth and Harvard. Bill Purdy has emerged as the ace of the staff, leading the rotation with a 3.83 ERA and three wins, the latest coming against Dartmouth.

Despite Purdy's complete-game, two-run victory, the weekend was highlighted by John Baumann's complete-game gem against Harvard in which he surrendered only five hits and one earned run. Baumann's record improved to 2-1, and he became the second Lion pitcher this season to receive weekly Ivy honors, as the junior was named to the Ivy League Honor Roll for the week of April 3.

Rounding out the rotation are Daniel Bajger and Henry Perkins, both of whom pitched well over the weekend without earning victories. The Columbia pitching staff's biggest question mark is the bullpen, which has been inconsistent with the exception of Clay Bartlett. Bartlett is having a stellar freshman year, with a 3.03 ERA and three wins. The rest of the pen has struggled, however, as no other reliever has an ERA lower than 7.00.

For the Lions to succeed throughout the rest of the season, they will need consistent pitching in late innings, especially from co-captain Andrew Walther. The senior has struggled to find the strike zone this season and leads the staff with 20 walks, nine wild pitches, and six hit batters. However, Walther will head into this weekend on an upswing. The lefty started yesterday's loss against Monmouth and pitched two scoreless innings, giving up only one hit.

On the offensive side, Columbia has a great run-producer in co-captain Andrew Ward, who leads the team with 26 RBI and a .546 slugging percentage. However, power is not the problem and will not be the answer this weekend. Columbia has struggled to produce runs in recent losses in which the team has faced good starting pitching. The Lions will need to revert to small ball against a tough Yale pitching staff that has struck out 139 batters and that will be especially volatile against a lineup that has yet to exude sustained patience. Columbia's hitters must take pitches and draw more walks. The team has only 84 walks on the season along with 162 strikeouts.

The Lions will need to jump out to early leads by manufacturing runs with situational hitting and good base running. In the first game against Harvard on Sunday, Columbia tied the game with a run that moved into scoring position on a stolen base. Putting on the hit-and-run will also help the team avoid grounding into double plays, something the Lions have been able to do successfully so far in the season, with only four GIDP. The Lions should have no trouble running on Yale and Brown, as both ball clubs have high opponent stolen base percentages of over .750.

With this combination of strong pitching depth and small-ball run production, the Lions should come away from this weekend with key fundamental victories to remain atop the Gehrig division standings.