SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – A ninth inning rally fell just short as the Columbia baseball team fell 5-4 at Cal Poly Sunday afternoon. The Mustangs (6-9) earned a four-game sweep of the Lions, who fell to 0-8 on the year.
Columbia trailed by three heading down to the final inning, but two errors allowed the Lions to pull within one with two outs. Jack Chernow led things off with a single before Cal Poly turned to Michael Clark to try and close things out. Clark walked Ben Porter to bring the tying run to the plate, but induced a groundout and struck out the next batter to put the Lions on the brink.
Julian Bury hit a roller to the right side that slid under the second baseman's glove to make it 5-3. Matt Cerfolio dropped in a single to short left to bring in Porter and put the tying run in scoring position. Joe Engel grounded the first pitch he saw to third that Nick DiCarlo couldn't handle to fill the base paths. Clark closed the door on the Columbia comeback bid by getting a fly out to right.
The Lions were held to seven hits on the day and all four runs were charged as unearned.
With two away in the top of the first, Joe Engel reached on an error and McGill made the Mustangs pay, belting a towering home run to left to put the Lions up 2-0. The long ball was Columbia's first homer of the season.
The Lions had a chance to extend the lead in the third when Julian Bury singled and Matt Cerfolio drew a walk. Engel dropped down a sacrifice bunt to push both runners into scoring position and Cal Poly opted to give McGill a free pass to set up a force play and Darren Nelson kept the Lions off the board with a pair of pop-ups.
Leo Pollack cruised through the first time through the lineup, but the Mustangs led off the fourth with a double and Tate Samuelson went deep to knot things up, 2-2.
Cal Poly took its first lead of the day in its next at-bats, using consecutive singles to start the rally. After a bunt and intentional walk loaded the bases, Samuelson grounded a ball that pushed second baseman Josh Nicoloff towards first base and the only play was to get the out at first to drive in the go-ahead run.
In the sixth, the Mustangs added an insurance run with two outs. With a runner on first, Willie Cano chopped a ball between Engel at short and Matt Cerfolio at third that neither could get a clean glove on to extend the inning. The next batter, Connor Gurnik, delivered a base knock to make it 4-2.
Darren Nelson earned the win for Cal Poly, tossing 6.0 innings of five-hit ball. Clark picked up his first save of the year.
Jordan Chriss (0-2) took the loss. The junior gave up three runs on five hits over 4.0 innings.
The Lions are back in action when they open a four-game series at North Florida on Friday, March 15. Game time is slated for 6 p.m.
