CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard's Hunter Bigge threw a complete-game and added a solo homer to break up a scoreless game in the seventh to lift the Crimson to a 3-1 victory in game one of the Ivy League Playoff Series. Game two is slated for noon Sunday, May 19 with a deciding game three, if necessary, to follow.
The two teams combined for 49 runs during the regular season series. However, it was the starting pitchers that stole the show to kick off the postseason.
Josh Simpson dueled Bigge for seven strong frames, allowing three runs on five hits with six strikeouts. Bigge struck out seven and had a no-hitter through five innings and finished with the one run allowed on four hits.
The Lions' best opportunity came in the top of the ninth, putting the first two batters on with no outs on a
Julian Bury single and a
Joe Engel free pass. Bigge buckled down for a strikeout, induced a fly ball and then balked to break up the shutout to score Bury from third. The righthander sealed the opener by getting the next batter to chase strike three in the dirt.
After working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first, Simpson retired 10 batters in a row, while Bigge did not allow a baserunner until the fifth. However, that runner was erased after he snagged a comebacker on the hill and doubled off
Josh Nicoloff on first.
Jack Chernow recorded the first hit of the contest to start the top of the sixth.
Columbia (19-22) started to threaten in the seventh when Engel drew a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. With two outs,
Liam McGill worked the count full and fouled off four pitches before ultimately flying out to leftfield to retire the side.
Bigge led off the bottom of the frame and took a 1-1 pitch over the wall in rightfield to give the Crimson a 1-0 advantage. The homer was the first run allowed by Columbia pitching in 20.2 innings in the ILPS after keeping Yale off the board the final 14 frames of game two last season.
An error and single started another rally in the eighth for the Lions, and a wild pitch put two in scoring position. With the infield in, a ground ball gave Harvard (26-13) two outs for
AJ DiFillipo, who made solid contact but found the glove of Patrick McColl guarding the line at first to keep the Lions off the board.
Harvard took advantage in the bottom of the inning when Ben Skinner drew a leadoff walk. Quinn Hoffman followed by dropping down a perfect bunt for an infield single. McColl, who came into the game hitting .403 was held in check his first three at-bats but delivered a single to the vacated hole at short with Engel covering the bag to make it 3-0.
Dan Harrington came on with runners on the corners and no outs and held the Crimson to just one more run, on a squeeze play, to keep the Lions within striking distance.
Chernow finished 2-for-3 on the day for the Lions. Hoffman was the only Harvard player to post multiple hits on the day.
Simpson's record dropped to 4-3, while Bigge moved to 7-1.
Tomorrow's game can be seen live on ESPN+.
