PHILADELPHIA — Penn scored six runs through the first two innings and the Columbia softball team's late rally came up short, dropping the final game of its opening Ivy League series, 8-5, Sunday afternoon at Penn Park.
Columbia (7-11, 2-1 Ivy) won the first two games on Saturday, both in extra innings, to walk away with a series victory. Harvard also took two of three on the road against Yale. Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown begin league play next weekend.
Madison Gott continued her torrid offense with her third home run of the weekend to put the Lions on the board in the fifth. The senior hit go-ahead, extra-inning home runs in both of Saturday's victories and finished the series 7 for 13 with five runs and six RBIs.
After striking for a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings, Columbia entered the seventh trailing by four. Penn (3-12, 1-2 Ivy) committed back-to-back errors to put the first two Lions on base and sophomore Sommer Grzybek made them pay with an RBI single to center. It made it a three-run game and brought the tying run to the plate with nobody out.
Penn went to the bullpen for Mason Spichiger, who was able to get senior Taylor Troutt, junior Bonnie Schipper and sophomore Amanda Nishihira all to fly out to end the ball game. She threw just four pitches to the final three batters to earn the save.
"We can't constantly rely on late-inning drama to win our games," head coach Jennifer Teague stated. "It's disappointing because I thought we should have come out of this weekend 3-0, but we're doing some really good things at the plate. We've got a few batters, Maddie and Taylor in particular, who are really locked in."
Penn struck for three runs in the first inning off Columbia sophomore Erin Gallo. She got herself in trouble by walking a pair to bring Lucy Yang up to bat with runners on the corners. The Quaker freshman hit a 2-2 pitch high and deep to left that sailed just over the glove of a backpedaling Krystin Wong for a three-run homer. Gallo was relieved after walking the first batter of the second. She took the loss (2-4), surrendering four earned runs despite just one hit while walking three.
Teague went to the bullpen for sophomore Madison Canby. Unfortunately, Penn didn't slow down. They put two in scoring position with two down and proceeded to score three runs. Sam Pederson and Sarah Cwiertnia had RBI singles as Penn went ahead, 6-0, despite only four hits.
Penn looked like it was going to pile more on in the third. The Quakers used three straight two-out singles to load the bases, but Canby got Tabitha Dyer down looking to retire the side.
Canby kept the Quakers off the board again in the fourth and the Lions began to chip away with two in the fifth. After hitting two extra-inning home runs in Saturday's victories, Madison Gott launched her third of the weekend to cut the lead to 6-2. Krystin Wong singled to start the inning before Gott came up with two down and tagged the first pitch of the at-bat to center.
Penn got both runs back in the bottom half against Canby. Molly Oretsky led off the inning with a single and was doubled home by Kayla Ketring. Ketring later scored on a ground out to first.
The Lions didn't go away, striking for two in the sixth to cut the lead back to four. Schipper hit a 1-out single and first-year Max Ortega walked with two down to bring up Wong. The runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch before Wong sent a 1-2 pitch to left to drive home both. Ortega was called safe on a close play at the plate.
Senior Maura Lynch, who entered midway through the fifth, held Penn off the board in the sixth to give the Lions a chance in the seventh. She went the final 1 2-3 innings without giving up a run.
Columbia meets up with Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck on Wednesday for a single game at 3 p.m. Columbia's hosts Yale for a three-game series next Saturday and Sunday in what will be the 2018 home opener.
