NEW YORK – The Columbia softball team (5-10) begins the 2018 Ivy League schedule this weekend with a three-game series at Penn (2-10). The series starts with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The final game of the series is scheduled for the same time on Sunday.
All three of this weekend's games can be watched live on the Ivy League Network. Live stats are available through StatBroadcast.
NEW IVY LEAGUE FORMAT
The Ivy League changed its schedule format for the 2018 season. Divisional play was eliminated and all eight teams will play one three-games series against one another. Columbia hosts three series (Yale, Harvard, Princeton) and plays four series on the road (Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell). The teams in first and second place in the Ivy League standing at the end of the regular season will play a three-game series to determine the Ivy League champion. The championship series will be hosted at the location of the team which finished first in the league standings (May 12-13).
GALLO 1-HITS FULLERTON
Sophomore Erin Gallo made her first collegiate shutout a memorable one, tossing a one-hitter against back-to-back NCAA Regional participant Cal State Fullerton in a 5-0 Columbia victory. Gallo struck out a career-high seven and took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. She retired 11 straight after walking the first batter of the game before a two-out hit in the fourth. That was all the Titans would get, as the native of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, retired 21 of the 25 batters she faced and recorded the final out on her 100th pitch.
SPRING BREAK WRAP-UP
Columbia played six games over Spring Break in the Los Angeles area (March 10-14). The Lions began the trip at the UC Riverside Classic, falling in a Saturday doubleheader against Boise State, 6-1, and UC Riverside, 9-5. North Dakota State defeated the Lions, 7-1, in Sunday's first game, but Columbia got out with a win by scoring seven runs in the first to defeat Colgate, 7-1. Sophomore Madison Canby tossed a complete game in the victory, coming two outs shy of a shutout. The Lions had Monday off before traveling to Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday, where they used sophomore Erin Gallo's 1-hit shutout to defeat the two-time defending Big West Conference champions, 5-0. Loyola Marymount put an end to Columbia's winning streak on Wednesday, 3-0.
GOLDEN STATE HOMECOMING
Columbia was able to bring six players back to their home state over Spring Break, which includes senior Nina Mandracchia (San Jose, Calif.), junior Jordan Townsend (Yorba Linda, Calif.), sophomores Amanda Nishihira (Los Alamitos, Calif.) and Emma Trussell (Chula Vista, Calif.), as well as first-years Max Ortega (Highland, Calif.) and Kiana McCaul (Los Gatos, Calif.). Of the half-dozen, Townsend, Nishihira and Ortega hail from the Los Angeles area, where the Lions spent their Spring Break trip.
GOTT CYCLES HER WAY TO PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior infielder Madison Gott was named Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time in her career (March 5) after hitting .471 and slugging 1.059 to help Columbia post a 3-1 record at the District Classic (hosted by Georgetown). The highlight of her weekend came Sunday, when she hit for the only known cycle in the softball program's 19 years of existence as Columbia rolled by Howard, 12-1, in five innings. Gott went 4-for-4 in the game with a career-high five RBIs, finishing the weekend with three doubles, two triples, a home run, five runs scored and seven RBIs. Gott's cycle is just the second completed in five innings in the NCAA this season.
PAGANE TABBED ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
First-year infielder Maria Pagane drove in five runs and scored six through Columbia's four games in the nation's capital to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Week (March 5). She homered in back-to-back games as part of Saturday's sweep over Virginia and Georgetown, including a 2-for-5, 3-RBI performance against the Hoyas. She put the game away with a three-run blast in the fifth. The rookie leads the team with three homers this season.
IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
March 5 – Player of the Week – Madison Gott
March 5 – Rookie of the Week – Maria Pagane
IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
February 26 – Maria Pagane, Erin Gallo
March 5 – Taylor Troutt, Madison Canby
March 12 – Taylor Troutt, Olivia Parker, Sommer Grzybek
SCOUTING PENN
Penn (2-10) snapped a three-game losing streak on Wednesday with a, 6-3, victory over Lafayette. The Quakers played their first 11 games in Clearwater, Florida, at the Under Armour Invitational and Under Armour Showcase (March 2-8). They lost their first seven before getting in the win column against Niagara, 7-5, Six of Penn's losses have come in extra innings, including a string of five straight losses in extras. Freshman Tabitha Dyer leads the team in hitting and pitching. Offensively, she boasts a .360 batting average with two doubles and a team-leading nine hits. In the circle, Dyer carries a team-best 3.98 ERA across 19 1-3 innings. She has struck out 10 and walked 16. Sophomore Jennifer Brann is also a threat on both sides, carrying a .300 batting average and 4.91 ERA across 25 2-3 innings, the most on the team. Freshman Lucy Yang is hitting .300 with a team-leading seven RBIs.
Penn leads the all-time series 40-17, including a sweep of all four games on the final weekend of the 2017 season. Columbia's last win came in the 2016 finale, where Krystin Wong walked it off on a single in the bottom of the seventh, 4-3.
