Columbia
Miami
Baseball Blanks No. 6 Miami 3-0 to Force Decisive NCAA Regional Game Monday
5/31/2015 11:12:00 PM | Baseball
BOX SCORE (.html) | BOX SCORE (.pdf)
CORAL GABLES, Fla. –In arguably the biggest game in the 127-year history of the Columbia baseball program, three pitchers combined to shutout No. 6 Miami as the Lions earned a 3-0 victory at the NCAA Coral Gables Regional Sunday night. The win sets up a winner-takes-all matchup with the Hurricanes (46-15) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. on ESPN3 with a berth to the Super Regionals on the line.
First-year Bryce Barr tossed five shutout innings to improve to 3-0 on the year. Barr allowed just two hits in his first appearance since an April 21 start at Fordham. From there, Zack Bahm –another freshman who last worked on April 15 at Rutgers – worked a perfect three innings before handing the ball to Adam Cline in the ninth.
Cline recorded the final three outs to pick up his third save of the Regional and his seventh of his career to set a new career record.
Miami, one of the top offensive teams in the nation, was shutout for the first time of the season. The trio of Lions' (34-16) hurlers held the Hurricanes to just two hits, including a strong finish of allowing one baserunner and and no hits over the final 5.1 innings.
Miami starting pitcher Enrique Sosa fanned seven batters through the first four innings, but lost his command in the fifth. Logan Boyher kicked things off with a single and Nick Maguire skied a ball to left that Hurricanes outfielder Jacob Heyward lost in the lights to put runners on first and second. Will Savage was hit by a pitch trying to sacrifice the runners to fill the bases with Lions and Jordan Serena took four pitches for a walk to put Columbia up 1-0. John Kinne was the next batter and hit a ball hard to third baseman David Thompson. It was fielded well and turned into a double play, however, the second run of the inning crossed home.
The Hurricanes only real threat came in the fourth inning when Chris Barr and George Iskenderian notched back-to-back hits with one out. Bryce Barr responded by getting Miami's top two hitters, Zack Collins and David Thompson, to fly out and ground out to escape the jam.
Columbia tacked on an insurance run on an RBI single to center by Kinne in the seventh. Maguire led the inning off with his third hit of the night Savage sacrificed him over to the next station once again. Serena punched a single by the second baseman George Iskenderian to put runners on the corners for Kinne.
Maguire went 3-for-3 with two runs scored to pace the offense. Robb Paller drew a walk in the fourth inning to stretch his streak of reaching base to 35 games.
The Lions are the first Ivy League program to win three games in an NCAA Baseball Tournament since 1974 when Harvard accomplished the feat. No team in the Ancient Eight has picked up three victories in the current NCAA Regional format, which began in 1999.
