NEW YORK — With a postseason spot already secured, the Columbia softball team (22-18, 13-5 Ivy) hopes to claim its first Ivy League title in program history this weekend when it hosts Brown (11-25, 4-14 Ivy) for a three-game set at the Columbia Softball Stadium. The series, originally scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, has been moved up to Friday and Saturday due to a forecast for inclement weather on Sunday.
First pitch for Friday's opening game is at 12:30 p.m. Senior Day will be celebrated on Saturday prior to the doubleheader, which is also scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The senior class of manager Jancy Capellan,
Jordan Townsend,
Alexandra Yule and
Krystin Wong will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
All three games will be streamed live on
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Live stats will be provided by
GoColumbiaLions.com. Fans can also keep up with the action on Twitter by following
@CULionsSoftball.
IVY LEAGUE RACE
Columbia enters the final weekend of the regular season tied for first place with Harvard and will clinch at least a share of the league title with three wins this weekend. The Crimson have yet to lock up their spot in the Ivy League Playoff Series but would do so with just one win against Cornell. The Lions need to finish ahead of Harvard in the standings in order to host the playoff series, which takes place next Friday and Saturday (May 10-11) at the site of the top seed. The winner of the playoff series earns the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals (May 17-19).
IVY LEAGUE STANDINGS
| Rk. |
Team |
Ivy League |
Games Back |
| 1. |
Columbia |
13-5 |
-- |
|
Harvard |
13-5 |
-- |
| 3. |
Penn |
13-8 |
1.5 |
| 4. |
Princeton |
10-8 |
3.0 |
| 5. |
Yale |
10-11 |
4.5 |
| 6. |
Dartmouth |
7-11 |
6.0 |
| 7. |
Cornell |
5-13 |
8.0 |
| 8. |
Brown |
4-14 |
9.0 |
CLINCHING SCENARIOS
Columbia can clinch at least a share of its first Ivy League title with a sweep over Brown or by winning the same amount of games this weekend as Harvard.
Columbia can clinch the outright Ivy League title and will host the Ivy League Playoff Series if it wins more games than Harvard this weekend. Harvard owns the tiebreak by virtue of winning the season series against Columbia.
COLUMBIA BULLETS
- With one more Ivy League win, Columbia will break the program record of 13 that was first set by last year's team.
- Columbia leads the Ivy League in runs (175), RBIs (165) and walks (108). The Lions rank No. 2 in home runs (27), triples (12), slugging (.429) and on-base percentage (.358), followed by No. 3 in batting average (.279), hits (281), doubles (46) and total bases (432).
- Sophomore third baseman
Max Ortega leads the Ivy League in runs (31) and RBIs (36). She ranks top-five in the league in batting average (.390), hits (48), doubles (10), triples (3), total bases (73) and slugging (.593). She is four RBIs short of tying Columbia's single-season record of 40 set by
Madison Gott in 2017 and six runs short of tying the record of 37 set by Kayla Lechler in 2010.
- Sophomore
Maria Pagane, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week, leads the Ivy League in triples (4), ranks No. 2 in runs (30), No. 3 in total bases (75) and No. 3 in hits (48). She is hitting a team-best .429 in conference play with 18 runs scored in 18 games. Pagane is currently on an 11-game hitting streak. Her career-long hitting streak is 13 games, which she set earlier this season (March 2-24).
-
Sommer Grzybek is one home run away from 25 in her career, which would put her in sole possession of second on Columbia's all-time list. The junior is also one home run away from tying the single-season record of 10. Grzybek's nine home runs on the year lead the Ivy League. She ranks No. 2 in the league in slugging (.719) and top 10 in RBIs (26).
- First-year
Abby Stuart ranks top-10 in the Ivy league in RBIs (26) and home runs (6).
- Columbia boasts three of the Ivy League's top seven players in RBIs in Ortega (36), Stuart (26) and Grzybek (26).
- Junior pitcher
Madison Canby (9-7) leads the Ivy League with 11 complete games and leads the Columbia pitching staff with a 3.00 ERA, 56 strikeouts and 109.2 innings pitched. She has two shutouts on the season and 32 career wins, which ranks third-most in program history.
- First-year pitcher
Alexa Pinarski (12-8) ranks second in the Ivy League in wins and has thrown 104.1 innings with nine complete games, third-most in the league. Against Ivy competition, she is 8-3 and carries a 2.72 ERA with seven complete games and two shutouts.
- Columbia's pitching staff carries a 2.95 ERA in Ivy League play, which ranks No. 2 in the Ancient Eight. Canby's and Pinarski's ERAs on the season overall are both among the top 10 in the league.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK SWEEP
Maria Pagane and
Alexa Pinarski combined to sweep this week's Ivy League awards. Pagane was named Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time and Pinarski was named both Pitcher and Co-Rookie of the Week for the first time. Pagane hit .438 last week with a .444 on-base percentage and .938 slugging percentage. She hit two home runs in the series victory over Penn and added a triple, five runs scored and four RBIs. Pinarski went 2-1 in the circle with a dazzling 1.09 ERA and six strikeouts in 19.1 innings. Her week included a two-hit shutout over Yale to win the series.
IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS
February 25:
Sommer Grzybek – Player of the Week
March 18:
Max Ortega – Player of the Week
March 25:
Max Ortega – Player of the Week
April 15:
Sommer Grzybek – Player of the Week
April 15:
Abby Stuart – Rookie of the Week
April 29:
Maria Pagane – Player of the Week
April 29:
Alexa Pinarski – Pitcher and Rookie of the Week
IVY LEAGUE WEEKLY HONOR ROLL
February 25:
Madison Canby,
Max Ortega,
Abby Stuart
March 4:
Erin Gallo,
Maria Pagane
March 18:
Sommer Grzybek,
Alexa Pinarski, Alex Yule
March 25:
Madison Canby,
Amanda Nishihira,
Maria Pagane,
Alexa Pinarski
April 1:
Maria Pagane,
Alexa Pinarski
April 8:
Maria Pagane,
Genny Soltesz
April 15:
Madison Canby
April 22:
Madison Canby,
Max Ortega,
Maria Pagane
April 29:
Madison Canby
20-WIN SEASON
Columbia's has locked up its third consecutive 20-win season under head coach
Jennifer Teague. The program record for wins is 27, accomplished by the 2002 team that went 27-23 (.540) over 50 games. The 2002 team also owns the program record in winning percentage. The Lions currently own a .550 winning percentage with three regular season games and the Ivy League Playoff Series still remaining.
SCOUTING BROWN
Brown has lost six of its last seven Ivy League games but did manage a win last weekend in the middle game against Dartmouth. They have been swept in three-game series against Harvard, Princeton and Penn. Madi Cranford leads the Brown offense with a .377 batting average and .455 on-base percentage. Cat Seitz is hitting .306 with a team-high 24 runs scored, 34 hits, 12 doubles, six homers and 17 RBIs. In the circle, Lauren Innerst (5-9) carries a team-best 2.78 ERA over nine starts, 26 appearances and 100.2 innings pitched. She has struck out 66. Emily Waters (4-12) has started 17 games and carries a 4.44 ERA in 97.2 innings.
THE SERIES
Columbia leads the all-time series, 22-13, after winning all three games against the Bears last season in Providence. The Lions last hosted Brown for a doubleheader in 2016, winning the first game , 4-1, before the Bears managed a split, 7-6.
