NEW YORK — The Columbia softball team kept its perfect home Ivy League record intact, hitting two home runs and shutting out Cornell for a second time in three games, 8-0 (6 Inn.), Sunday afternoon at the Columbia Softball Stadium.
The win completes Columbia's second Ivy League sweep of the season, both of which have come at home. The Lions (17-15, 9-3 Ivy) remain in a tie for first place in the standings with Harvard (9-3) after the Crimson swept Dartmouth in Hanover. Cornell fell to 6-27 on the year with a 2-10 mark in league play.
Sommer Grzybek helped break the game open in the third with her second home run of the weekend and eighth of the season, finishing the day 2-for-4 with a run and three RBIs. The junior slugger was 6-for-10 in the series with nine runs driven in. Meanwhile, classmate and catcher Amanda Nishihira opened the scoring with her fourth long ball of the year and finished her day with two RBIs. Max Ortega, Alexandra Yule and Jordan Townsend all also drove in a run.
"Winning on Sunday is huge and we've been emphasizing it all season," Grzybek said. "It felt really good to come out and play as hard as we could. We knew we had to score some runs and help our pitchers out. I thought we adjusted at the plate really well."
Alexa Pinarski (10-6) rebounded nicely in the circle to pick up her 10th win of the season. After allowing four runs in 3.1 innings on Saturday, the rookie righty earned her first career shutout with six strong innings. She allowed only four hits, striking out three without surrendering a single walk. The only Cornell runner to reach third base came in the second inning when the Big Red put runners at the corners with one out, but Pinarski got Hannah Contreras to line into a double play to retire the side.
"Our pitchers were amazing all weekend," Grzybek added. "Maddie Canby didn't allow a run in either game yesterday and Lex was great for us today."
The Lions scored the first two runs of the game in the second. Cornell starter Katie Lew (3-14) surrendered a leadoff walk to Abby Stuart, who advanced to third with two out on a passed ball and sac bunt. Amanda Nishihira then stepped up and drilled a 2-0 pitch to deep center to put Columbia on top.
A four-run third broke the game open. Maria Pagane reached on an error to lead off the inning and was later driven home on an RBI single by Max Ortega. The next batter was Sommer Grzybek, who got ahead in the count 3-1 before lining her Ivy League-best eighth home run of the campaign to left. Alexandra Yule capped off the big inning with a run-scoring triple that got by the diving Hannah Contreras in right.
Another Cornell error and two more walks by Lew loaded the bases with one out for Grzybek in the fourth. This time she grounded into a fielder's choice at short that brought home the seventh run. The Lions were unable to score another in the frame but reloaded the bases with one out in the sixth. Jordan Townsend came to bat and dropped a 2-2 pitch just in front of the left fielder, Brianna Straley, scoring pinch runner Krystin Wong with the game-ending run.
Columbia will now play four straight games in the state of Connecticut. The Lions head to Fairfield for a midweek single on Wednesday before continuing Ivy League action Saturday and Sunday at Yale.
