NEW YORK — With back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning from
Jack Cooper and a walk-off from
Austin Mowrey, Columbia Baseball (7-11 1-1 IVY) ended the day on an exciting note, erasing a six-run deficit over the final three innings to win the second game of Saturday's Ivy League opening action, 11-10, over Penn (13-6, 1-1 IVY) after dropping the opening game, 10-5, at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium to split the day's action.
The Lions entered the ninth inning of the second game down, 10-9, but Cooper's first pitch he saw was smashed into center field to tie it up and after taking a strike, Mowrey jumped on an 0-1 pitch sending the no doubt game winner over the wall in center field to give Columbia its comeback win and first walk-off win via a home run since 2013.
"Our guys deserve credit for sticking it out until the end, despite the performances on the day," said head coach
Brett Boretti. "They kept their noses in there and to find a way to get a spilt on the day is huge.
"It was a long day, and I think Penn played well and we struggled against their pitching. Our guys battled, they were scrapping and trying everything they could to get back into the game.
"We got a good bottom of the eighth inning, and we got a zero from
Griffin Palfrey out of the pen. Jack is a guy who had a great preseason and we thought it was a good time for him and he stepped up and put a ball over the fence to tie it up. And then Austin coming up, getting a pitch he could work with, and doing a great job to hit that one as well.
"It was a great job from those two individually."
Over the final two innings of the second game, Columbia's pitching was key, putting up zeros as the Lions crawled back into the game, with
Justin Tucker,
Will Parkinson and Palfrey (2-0) tossing scoreless innings. But it was the power from Columbia that got them the split on the day, smashing five home runs in the second game, and six on the day.
The display of power and exciting finish to the second game, puts the Lions in position to take the Ivy League opening series over Penn.
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME ONE): Penn jumped on Columbia's starter,
Sean Higgins (2-3) early with four runs in the second and one in the third to quickly go up 5-0. Dealing with runners on all day, Higgins battled and after five innings of work had held Penn to just the five runs.
The Lions did get on the board in the sixth with a pair of runs, thanks to a one-out double from
Tyler MacGregor, and after
Joshua Solomon took a pitch off the back,
Hayden Schott smacked an RBI single to score MacGregor. A stolen base from Solomon moved him to third and
Anton Lazits delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to score Solomon and put the score at 5-2.
But Penn answered in the seventh, scoring three runs to extend their lead to 8-2. Over the final two innings, Penn would score two more runs making it 10-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth. In a bit of foreshadowing of things to come,
EJ Kreutzmann came in and smashed a two-out pinch-hit three-run home run into right field to pull Columbia within five runs, but it was too little to late for that game, as the Lions fell to Penn 10-5.
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME TWO): In the second game, the Lions came out aggressive, swinging away and getting on the board early in the first thanks to a lead-off single from
Cole Hage. He then stole second and came around to score on a MacGregor single to right.
It put the score quickly at 1-0 after the first frame of action, but Penn would answer in the second. The Quakers got a pair of runs off Columbia starter
Joe Sheets to go ahead 2-1, but in the bottom half of the second Schott led things off with a solo blast to right center to quickly tie things up at 2-2 after the opening two frames.
Over the next four innings, Penn began to build a lead they thought they could hold, and it started with great pitching from their starter, Joe Miller, who would go into the eighth inning before getting knocked out. Penn scored a run in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and two more in the sixth, giving them a 10-4 lead after six innings.
The Lions stayed with Penn best they could during that four inning stretch, helped by a pair of runs in the fifth. Lazits led the inning off and advanced to second on a passed ball.
Weston Eberly then smashed his third triple of the season, scoring Lazits from second. Eberly would eventually score on a double play turned by Penn, but it kept the Lions within striking distance.
In the eighth, the comeback began.
After Tucker and Parkinson combined to hold Penn scoreless in the top half, Hage led off the bottom half with a single past the third basemen. MacGregor walked to move Hage along, and after a pair of strikeouts up stepped
Skye Selinsky.
Selinsky, who had replaced Schott in right in the fifth inning, would face Penn's new pitcher, Brendan Bean and he would welcome Bean to the game with a three-run blast that brought the Lions within one run, 10-9, and set the stage for a ninth inning that will not be forgotten for a long time on the tip of Manhattan.
Cooper, pinch hitting for Phelps, waisted zero time getting the Columbia fans on their feet, smashing the first pitch he saw to right center to tie up the game at 10-10. What's even more exciting about the swing, is that for Cooper that was his first collegiate hit, and it was a big one.
With the score tied up at 10-10, Mowrey decided it was time to go home. After taking a strike he jumped the next pitch he saw, depositing the pitch into centerfield. After rounding the bases, he jumped into a crowd of his Lions teammates, ending the game at 11-10 and giving Columbia one of the more exciting finishes to a ballgame in recent memory.
GAME NOTES: This was the first walk-off home run by a Lion since Joey Falcone walked it off against Penn on Apr. 26, 2013 … It was the first time the Lions have gone back-to-back since May 10, 2018 … Kreutzmann's pinch hit home run was, at the time until Cooper's in the second game, the first pinch-hit home run by a Lion since
Josh Nicoloff hit one against Penn on Apr. 28, 2018 … Lazits now has a nine-game hitting streak … Schott has a six game-hitting streak … The five home runs are the most in a game for the Lions since hitting three at Harvard on Apr. 28, 2019 … Columbia's 11 RBIs is a season high … Lazits had a great day going 3-3 1 RBI 1 R in the first game and 2-4 3 RBI 2 R in the second game.
UP NEXT: The Lions wrap up their Ivy League opening series against Penn, with a chance to win the series, tomorrow, Sunday, Mar. 27 first pitch set to be tossed at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium at 12 p.m.
FOLLOWING THE LIONS: Stay up to date on all things Columbia Baseball by following the Lions on Twitter (@CULionsBaseball), Instagram (@culionsbaseball) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
