Second Season a Success for Boretti

The Columbia baseball team wrapped up its 2007 Ivy season in stellar fashion this weekend, winning three of four from division rival Cornell. The Lions finished with a 10-10 record against the league-their best finish since 2001.

"That's something that hasn't been done in awhile," head coach Brett Boretti said. "It was a big improvement from last year," third baseman Mike Roberts added. "We're just playing better baseball, competing a lot better in all of our games. We fought real hard."

The pride of the Lions has not been unwarranted. The team finished 8-4 against the rest of the Lou Gehrig division, winning three of four from both Cornell and current leader Penn while splitting a four-game series against defending Ivy champion Princeton. While it will fall short of its goal to capture a league title, Columbia has plenty to be proud of and lots to look forward to in future seasons.

This past series against Cornell highlighted the various ways in which the Columbia baseball team has progressed since Boretti took over in 2005, while showcasing some of the best baseball the team has played all year. The offense stepped up with timely hits while the other side of the scorecard put on a display of pitching and defensive gems. The result was victory in three of the four games and a final record of .500.

As baseball purists will assert, victory always starts with solid starting pitching. The Lions received great performances from each of their four starters this weekend. On Saturday, ace Bill Purdy and the ever-dependable John Baumann earned the wins in their respective starts, each pitching complete games.

The Sunday starts of Clay Bartlett and Henry Perkins will go relatively overlooked, as neither had stats that were particularly flashy or eye-catching. He may not have pitched a complete game, but Bartlett exceeded the call of duty when the reliever took the mound and ended up pitching six innings of two-run ball.

"My arm is pretty resilient and I'm fine filling in wherever I may be needed, either as a starter or a reliever," Bartlett said. "It all depends on what coach wants me to do. I'm just glad that I was able to come into the program and be an immediate impact."

The freshman has certainly made his mark on a team that has had notoriously shaky pitching in recent years. Bartlett leads all pitchers-starters and relievers-with the lowest ERA on the staff. His attitude suggests that he is simply happy to be out on the field, doing whatever his team needs from him.

This sentiment is shared by many Lions, perhaps most notably by Perkins. An adept second baseman on his off days, Perkins has been worked the hardest of all his teammates: in addition to seven starts that include three complete games, the junior has also played in 31 games as the starting second baseman.

This past weekend, both Perkins and Bartlett pitched on three days' rest, after the team needed them to start in the postponed doubleheader against Princeton last week that had monumental playoff implications. This weekend, both pitchers got through the sixth, keeping their team in the game and giving Columbia the best possible chance of winning. For Bartlett, the result was victory; for Perkins, the result was loss. While he would have liked to have earned the win, and Columbia would have hoped for the chance to compete for an Ivy League title, there is much to look forward to as Bartlett, Perkins, and the Lions will return next season fully prepared to take on the rest of the Ancient Eight.