Columbia
St. John's
Baseball Hangs On for 5-4 Win at St. John's to Extend Win-Streak to Eight
4/8/2015 7:59:00 PM | Baseball
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QUEENS, N.Y. – The Columbia baseball team's bullpen worked out of jams in each of the final four innings to hang on for a 5-4 win over St. John's Wednesday afternoon. The Lions are winners of eight in a row to improve to 16-10 overall on the year.
Seniors Gus Craig and Jordan Serena led the way offensively for Columbia. Craig went 3-for-4 and scored a run Serena was 2-for-3 with a pair of stolen bases. David Vandercook also had two hits.
The Lions used five pitchers on the day and Ryan Marks earned the decision (2-2) after throwing three innings of one-hit ball in relief. He struck out two and faced just one batter over the minimum.
The Red Storm (16-11) took the lead, 1-0, the first two batters reached via walk to put runners on the corners and a wild pitch on ball four brought in the leadoff batter Alex Caruso.
Columbia took it all back in the top of the third, using a leadoff walk, an error and passed ball to put two in scoring position. John Kinne evened things up with a single and Robb Paller plated the go-ahead run with another base hit. A double play ball allowed the third run of the frame to put the Lions in front, 3-1.
Hits by Craig and Vandercook gave Columbia runners on first and third with no outs in the sixth and Randell Kanemaru delivered a sac fly to tack on one more. Later in the frame, Logan Boyher extended the margin to 5-1 with a long fly ball to left to bring in Vandercook.
St. John's had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the stanza, loading the bases with no outs before reliever Bryce Barr settled in. Barr induced two fly outs, which led to just one run and picked up a key grounder to retire the side.
In the seventh, three consecutive hits brought in another Red Storm score and with runners on the corners the deficit was trimmed to 5-4 after a passed ball.
Zack Bahm came in to pitch the eighth, but the tying run wound up on scoring position after a one-out Jarred Mederos double. Bahm buckled down and retired the next batter to keep the Lions in front.
Bahm was pulled after St. John's Ty Blankmeyer reached on an error to start the ninth inning. Harrisen Egly came on and a pair of stellar defensive plays, a diving catch by Lane Robinette on a popped up sacrifice bunt try and a sprawling Nick Maguire at first to prevent a base hit, left the Red Storm to their final out.
The next batter flied out and Egly picked up his fourth save of the season to take over the team lead.
The Lions open up Gehrig Divisional play with a four-game series at Princeton with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 12. First pitch of game one is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
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