NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Senior Harrisen Egly closed out the last Columbia Ivy League Championship game in 2015 and on Tuesday he shut out Yale, 4-0, in game one of the ILCS to give the Lions a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series. Egly allowed just four hits and struck out six to improve to 3-3 on the year.  

Egly and the Bulldogs' (22-20) starter Scott Politz dueled for the first six innings before Columbia (19-27) broke through in the seventh inning to take the lead. In the eighth, the Lions plated three more runs to cap the scoring and put them one win away from clinching the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

With two away in the seventh, Jack Chernow poked an opposite-field single to leftfield which led to Ben Porter dropping in a triple that was out of the reach of a diving right fielder in the gap. Chernow came around from first to break the scoreless tie.

Chandler Bengtson and Joe Engel reached to start the top of the eighth and Julian Bury's flare to left fell in to extend the margin to 2-0, chasing Politz from the ballgame. With Bury on second after a misplay on his single, Lane Robinette gave Columbia some more breathing room with a single to center. Chernow capped the scoring with a sac fly and Ty Wiest did the rest, retiring all six batters he faced in order.

Porter and Bengtson each went 2-for-4. Chernow was 2-for-3. Randell Kanemaru returned to the lineup after missing the Cornell series due to injury.

Egly made his 58th career appearance, which is a new Lions' all-time record. The Edina, Minnesota, native tied the mark previously held by Clay Bartlett in his final start of the regular season against the Big Red on May 12.

The shutout was the first for Columbia in its Ivy League Championship series history (17 games). Coincidentally, Politz was the last Ancient Eight hurler to throw an ILCS shutout after topping Penn, 5-0, in game one of last year's series.

Politz (5-4) lasted 7.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on nine hits and struck out five. Teddy Hague was the lone Bulldog with multiple hits, going 2-for-3.

With rain falling on historic Yale Field and expected to continue throughout the evening, game two of the ILCS was postponed to Wednesday, May 23, at 11:30 a.m. If necessary, the best of three series will conclude Wednesday afternoon, with game three commencing 40 minutes following the conclusion of game two.