NEW YORK – Columbia scored four runs in the third to take the lead and homered three times to power its way past Brown, 11-2, in six innings on Friday afternoon at the Columbia Softball Stadium.
With the victory, Columbia (23-18, 14-5 Ivy) set a new program record for Ivy League wins in a season, breaking the 13-8 mark set by last year's team. The Lions, who have already clinched a spot in the Ivy League Playoff Series, now sit a half-game ahead of Harvard (13-5 Ivy) in the league standings. The Crimson start their series against Cornell on Saturday. Brown fell to 11-26 on the year with a 4-15 league mark.
Amanda Nishihira blew the game open in the fifth. After Brown walked two consecutive batters to load the bases, Nishihira launched the first pitch she saw deep and gone to left for her first career grand slam. The blast put the Lions on top, 8-1, before Max Ortega and Alexandra Yule added two more home runs in the sixth to bring the mercy rule into effect.
"Everyone is in the mindset right now that we've got to take this weekend one game at a time," said Yule, who hit her first home run of the season to walk the game off. "It took a couple of innings to get things started but once we did we really turned it on. We had great pitching by Maddie Canby, we played great defense behind her and had even better hitting. It feels great to take the first game of the series."
Ortega came up a double shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBIs. The sophomore upped her league-leading RBI total to 39, which is one away from tying Columbia's single-season record. Nishihira was 1-for-2 with two runs and four RBIs, while Yule was 1-for-4 with her game-ending two-run shot.
"It feels good but we're not going to take tomorrow for granted," head coach Jennifer Teague said. "I was really proud of the in-game adjustments we made at the plate. I also thought Maddie Canby was absolutely amazing today with her three-hitter. We just have to clean up our defense a little bit and I think we'll have a good day tomorrow."
Junior pitcher Madison Canby improved to 10-7 with her 12th complete game of the season, tops in the Ivy League. She allowed just two runs, one earned, on three hits and two walks to go with a pair of strikeouts. After Brown scored on a dropped throw at first base in the first, Canby retired nine of the next 10 batters and didn't allow another hit until the fourth inning. A leadoff homer by Brown's Madi Cranford in the sixth was her only earned run allowed.
A Brown miscue on a ball hit to short tied the game in the third and Columbia made the Bears pay with three more in the inning. Ortega came to bat with two in scoring position and drove a pitch to the gap in right center, driving in both and sliding in safely at third with a triple. The throw to third by Brown skipped away and allowed Ortega to score to increase the lead to 4-1.
Relief pitcher Emily Waters walked the bases loaded with two outs in the fourth but was able to escape. She wasn't as fortunate in the fifth, as Nishihira unloaded the bags with her sixth home run of campaign to left, making it an 8-1 ball game.
The Bears got one of those runs back on Cranford's homer to lead off the sixth but Columbia put the game away in the bottom half. Ortega hit a one-out solo home run to make it a seven-run game again and Yule tagged Waters for a two-out, two-run shot to finish it off.
Columbia concludes the regular season on Saturday with a doubleheader against the Bears at 12:30 p.m. The Senior Day ceremony is scheduled to start 10 minutes prior to first pitch.
"We're going to get after it," Teague added. "Anytime you can put up that many runs it's great but it's 0-0 when we take the field tomorrow. We need to continue to take care of ourselves."
