NEW YORK – The Columbia baseball team earned a series win after splitting a doubleheader with Cornell Sunday. The Big Red (4-11, 1-2) snuck by the Lions in game one, 4-3, before Columbia bounced back with a 13-8 triumph in the nightcap.
The Lions (5-11, 2-1) will continue their homestand Wednesday, March 27 against Manhattan. First pitch is set for 3:30 p.m. Fans can catch all the action on ESPN+.
GAME ONE
Cornell did all of its work in the fifth inning, scoring four runs to take a 4-1 lead and had to hold off Columbia in the day's opener.
Ben Wereski struck out eight of the first 12 batters he faced, but ran into trouble when Josh Arndt led the inning off with a triple. Two batters later, Matt Collins recorded another three-bagger to knot things up, 1-1. Andrew Carnegie followed with a base-hit to put the Big Red in front. After another single and an error put runners on second and third, Austin Flematti knocked in both runners with a knock through the left side of the infield to cap the scoring.
Columbia scored a run in the fifth and sixth innings, thanks to the first career homer from Matt Cerfolio and a sacrifice fly by AJ DiFillipo. However, John Natoli came in and silenced the Lions' bats, retiring all 11 batters he faced and striking out eight, on his way to his first save of the season.
Columbia's bullpen wiggled out of a pair of bases loaded jams in the eighth and ninth to keep it a one-run ballgame.
Wereski (0-3) took the loss, allowing the four runs on seven hits. Luke Yacinich (1-3) entered the game after Cornell took the lead and earned a decision despite giving up two runs in his 1.1 innings of relief.
Joe Engel led off the bottom of the first with a home run, becoming the first Lion to hit a leadoff homer since Jordan Serena '15CC did so against East Carolina at the 2015 NCAA Coral Gables Regional. The longball was the first of the year for the senior shortstop.
Cerfolio had two of Columbia's four hits in game one.
GAME TWO
The Lions erased two-run deficits three times to come away victorious in the nightcap. Chandler Bengtson's third career grand slam in the bottom of the fourth put Columbia in front, 9-6, and the Lions never looked back.
Down 2-0, Engel drove in Julian Bury with a triple to cut the deficit in half. Liam McGill drew a walk to put runners on first and second leading to a ground ball hit close to the bag at first base. Arndt fielded it cleanly, touched the bag for one out, but his throw to second was high, allowing Engel to come in on the play to even things up.
Cornell answered with two more runs in the second, capitalizing on a wild pitch with a runner on third and a Flematti RBI single. In the bottom of the frame, DiFillipo worked a walk and Julian Bury pulled a single to right. Engel delivered two more RBI with a double, making it 4-4.
Back-to-back extra-base hits gave the Big Red the lead again. With a runner on third, Carnegie delivered a single to give Cornell a 6-4 advantage and held the Lions to just one run in the bottom half. Josh Nicoloff notched a one-out double and came around on Ben Porter's single up the middle to trim the deficit to 6-5.
Ethan Abrams came out of the bullpen and put up a zero in the fourth to put Columbia in position to grab the lead in its next at-bats.
Bury and Engel posted their third hits of the game, putting runners on first and second for McGill. The junior grounded a ball to third, Cornell's Collins opted to race to the bag instead of throwing to first to get the lead runner, but Bury beat him to the base to fill the base paths. Bengtson was the next batter up and he mashed a 3-1 pitch well over the wall, giving the Lions a 9-6 cushion
Cerfolio started the sixth with another solo dinger and the Lions continued to pile on insurance runs. Hits from Engel, a fielders' choice and a walk loaded the bases again and Columbia cashed in. DiFillipo ripped a triple down the rightfield line to clear the bases to extend the advantage to 13-6.
Cornell plated runs in the seventh and ninth, but Columbia went on for the win.
Nicoloff finished 3-for-5 with a pair of runs to join Bury, Engel and Bengtson with Lions with multiple hits. Three players drove in two or more runs (Engel, Bengtson and DiFillipo). Engel pushed his on-base streak to 22 games, dating back to last season.
Abrams (1-0) was the pitcher of record, lasting 4.0 innings allowing one run on two hits. Seth Urbon (0-4) lasted 3.2 innings and allowed nine runs on 10 hits.
Arndt led the Big Red offense, going 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI.
