Columbia
Harvard
Kinne Delivers Walk-Off Hit to Lift Baseball to 5-4 Win Over Harvard in Game One
3/29/2015 4:25:00 PM | Baseball
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NEW YORK – Junior John Kinne delivered a pinch-hit walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Columbia baseball team to a 5-4 win over Harvard in game one of a twinbill on Sunday afternoon.
With the Lions (10-10, 2-1) up 4-3 in the top of the seventh after a leadoff infield single and sacrifice bunt put the tying run into scoring position. With two away, Jake McGuiggan doubled to the gap in left-center to even things up.
Columbia's rally started with a two-out walk by David Vandercook, who moved to second after a passed ball. Randell Kanemaru followed with another base on balls to set up Kinne, who pulled a single to leftfield to bring in Vandercook and end the contest.
The scoring opened in the top of the fourth off of some strange happenings. McGuiggan hit a double that popped out of the glove of Serena, covering a lot of real estate in right-center. Mitch Klug then ducked to avoid getting hit, but the ball hit the bat and stayed in fair territory for an out, moving the runner to third. With the infield playing in, Ethan Ferreira hit a hard grounder to short that a diving Randell Kanemaru could not come up with to make it 1-0.
The Lions caught some breaks of their own in the bottom of the frame, beginning with a fly ball lost in the sun by the Harvard centerfielder lost a fly ball in the sun to put Vandercook on third with a triple. The Crimson conceded the tying run on a groundout by Kanemaru.
Back-to-back hits gave Harvard runners on the corners and a sac fly to deep center by Matt Rothenberg put the Crimson back in front after four and half innings.
However, the Lions bounced back in the bottom of the fifth. Serena singled and stole second to set the table for Falcone, who doubled to even things up at 2-2. Gus Craig gave Columbia its first lead of the day with a hard hit double to right and Vandercook joined in on the fun with an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-2.
Harvard got one back in the sixth after a double and single started the stanza. Another sac fly cut the deficit to one, but Will Savage made the defensive play of the game from second base. Savage picked a ground ball up with his backhand and made a strong throw to first for the second out of the inning. Starting pitcher George Thanopoulos worked around a two-out walk to get a fly out to keep the Lions within striking distance.
Thanopoulos had a quality start, throwing six innings of three-run ball. The junior righty allowed six hits and struck out five. Ty Wiest earned the victory in relief.
Serena finished 3-for-4 and remains a perfect 10-for-10 on steal attempts.
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