Columbia
Harvard
Baseball Grinds Out 9-7 Win in Eight Innings to Sweep Harvard
3/29/2015 8:33:00 PM | Baseball
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NEW YORK – The Columbia baseball team erased a three-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth and grinded out a 9-7 victory in eight innings to earn a doubleheader sweep of Harvard Sunday. The game was halted with one out in the eighth due to darkness.
Senior Joey Falcone had a monster game, going 4-for-5 with three RBI and his fourth homer of the season.
Trailing 7-4, the game one hero John Kinne reached on an error and Logan Boyher ripped a 3-2 pitch to centerfield. A two-out walk loaded the bases and Robb Paller earned an RBI with base-on-balls. Falcone knotted things up with a two-run double to the gap and put runners on second and third. Gus Craig skied a high pop up to third that was dropped by Harvard to bring in the go-ahead run.
Falcone put the exclamation point with a towering home run to right-center in the eighth before the contest was suspended.
Earlier in the contest, Harvard (10-10, 0-2) used a leadoff bunt single and stolen base by Mike Martin to set up Jake McGuiggan, who doubled to bring in the first run in the top of the first.
Columbia overtook the Crimson in the bottom of the second, loading the bases with one out. Harvard got a ground ball and a force play at the plate for the second out, but Boyher, who finished 3-for-3 in the nightcap, came through with a sharp single over the head of the third baseman, bringing the score to 2-1 in favor of the Lions.
Craig continued to swing a hot-bat with a two-run bomb, his second of the year, over the high fence in right-center to extend the cushion to 4-1. The senior rightfielder finished the Ivy League opening weekend hitting .467 (7-for-15) with five RBI.
Two costly Lion errors allowed Harvard to score three unearned runs and even things up, 4-4, in the top of the fourth and starting pitcher Adam Cline found himself in another jam in the fifth.
The Crimson reached on a double and single to start the inning. Willis Robbins came out of the bullpen and induced a ground ball out, but the go-ahead run came in. Later in the frame, Columbia's third error of the contest brought in an insurance run to extend the margin to 6-4.
A sacrifice fly in the seventh gave Harvard a three-run differential before the Lions once again showed their resiliency.
Harrisen Egly tossed 2.1 shutout innings to earn victory. Cline went four innings and allowed just two earned runs on six hits with four punch-outs.
The Lions hit the road to take on Brown for a doubleheader on Saturday, April 4. Game one is slated for 12 p.m. in Providence.
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