WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Columbia baseball team trailed by as many as seven runs, but chipped away and used a five-run ninth inning to claim a 15-12 victory over Army West Point Wednesday night. Senior Joe Engel's three-run triple gave the Lions their first lead of the night and Tim Post worked a scoreless bottom the ninth to earn his second save of the year.
Columbia will close out the regular season at Penn this weekend, needing just one win to clinch a berth in the Ivy League Playoff Series.
With both teams battling misty conditions, Columbia (18-19) drew 11 walks on the night, including three apiece from Chandler Bengtson and Ben Porter. On the other side, six of the Black Knights' (26-21) were charged as unearned due to a season-high four errors committed by the Lions.
Army's first five batters of the game recorded hits, capped by John McKenna's bases-clearing double that gave the Black Knights a 4-0 lead. An RBI groundout Jeremiah Adams completed the early outburst before the Lions' starter Sean Higgins settled in to record nine consecutive batters.
Columbia got back into the game in the top of the third without recording a hit. Starting pitcher Matt LePoint issued three consecutive walks to load the bases and Ben Porter worked another base-on-balls to get the Lions on the board. With Joshua Solomon batting, reliever Logan Smith threw a wild pitch to bring the Lions within 5-2.
An error and passed ball in the bottom of the fourth brought in two runs and a sac fly from Jacob Hurtubise and RBI single from Anthony Giachin gave the Black Knights their largest lead of the night. In the top of the fifth, Columbia got all of those runs back, filling the base paths on an Engel single and two walks. Solomon punched an opposite field single to right-center for one run and Chernow took four pitches for a free-pass, bringing the score to 9-4. AJ DiFillipo then delivered a two-run single to bring it back to a three-run contest.
Army restored a five-run advantage when an error and walk put runners on first and second with two outs. The Black Knights ran a double steal and the throw to third was off the mark, bringing in Titus Drake. Later, a wild pitch put Army up 11-6.
Walks continued to plague Army in the seventh, issuing a pair to start the frame. After a double play, Chernow beat the pitcher, who was a little late covering the bag at first, for an infield single. Columbia pulled even closer with three consecutive singles to kick off the top of the eighth to load the bases. A groundout brought in Julian Bury to make it 11-8 and Porter knocked two more home with a single the squirted through the right side of the infield, trimming the deficit to one.
The Black Knights used a two-out single, wild pitch and RBI knock from Giachin in the bottom of the eighth before the Lions completed the comeback in the ninth.
Matt Cerfolio started things off with an infield single, followed by a walk to DiFillipo and Bury's third hit of the day, loading the bases once again to set the table for Engel. After the senior shortstop's clutch triple that dropped in down the rightfield line, Bengtson hit a long fly ball that was dropped to put the Lions up 14-12. With Bengtson on third after the miscue, Porter posted another hit out of the reach of the Arrmy second baseman for the final run of the game.
Post came on and issued a one-out walk, but closed the deal with a fly out and Engel, fittingly, ended the game with a 6-3 putout.
Jimmy Smiley (3-0) was the pitcher of record, allowing one run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts in the eighth.
Engel finished with three hits and four runs scored, while Porter posted four RBI.
The Lions and Quakers will meet up in Philadelphia, beginning with a single game Friday, May 3, at 2 p.m. On Saturday, May 4, the teams will meet for a doubleheader slated for a 12 p.m. start. All three games can be seen on ESPN+.
