NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Columbia baseball team battled Yale for 15 innings before a Joe Engel sacrifice fly gave the Lions a 2-1 walk-off victory in game two to clinch the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. Columbia earns a share of the conference title with the Bulldogs, but gains the Ancient Eight's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Lions (20-27) earn their fourth NCAA Tournament berth in six years and will make its sixth appearance all-time. This is also the 14th Ivy League (including EIBL Championships) title for Columbia and the fifth ILCS victory for the program.
Teddy Hague and Simon Whiteman opened the contest with back-to-back singles, before Benny Wanger plated the first—and only—Yale run of the ILCS with a sacrifice fly to center field in the top half of the first inning. Columbia answered in the bottom of the second, when Lane Robinette picked an opportune moment to send the fourth home run of his collegiate career over the wall in left-center field.
What followed were 12 scoreless innings that featured a combined total of 15 runners left-on-base. Perhaps the greatest opportunity over the stretch that spanned from the third to the 14th inning, came when Columbia had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 12th.
Jordan Chriss and Ty Wiest were responsible for keeping the score deadlocked through that period. Chriss started the game, allowing the one run in the first over seven innings of work with five strikeouts. Wiest tossed six innings of one-hit ball to go with four strikeouts in his second appearance in as many days.
Randell Kanemaru hit a well-struck ball to shallow center field that found the glove of Hague for the second out of the inning. Wanger, who threw five innings in relief, then got his final out with a full-count, called third strike against Liam McGill to end the Lion bases-loaded threat.
With Alex Stiegler on the mound for the Bulldogs, Ben Porter led off the bottom of the 15th with a double to left center—just the third extra-base knock of the contest. The Lions would eventually find themselves with the bases loaded and one out following a pair of intentional walks and a sacrifice bunt.
With the stage set, Engel stepped to the plate and sent the first pitch he saw to center field—deep enough to plate Porter for a walk-off sacrifice fly.
Lucas Hall (3-0) earned the victory after striking out a pair in a 1-2-3 top of the 15th inning.
Columbia is the first road team to prove victorious in the ILCS since Dartmouth in 2010 and the first to do so via a series sweep since Princeton in 2006. The contest was the longest in ILCS and program history.
The Lions will find out which Regional they will play on during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday, May, 28. The selection show starts at 12 p.m. and will be broadcasted live on ESPNU.
