PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Trailing after the seventh inning for the second-straight day, Columbia Baseball (14-13, 7-2 IVY) again powered back to score 10 runs over the final three innings to knock off Brown (6-17, 2-7), 11-6, to compete another Ivy League weekend sweep in a Sunday afternoon game at Attanasio Family Field at Murry Stadium.
The Lions scored one in the seventh, six in the eighth and three in the ninth to come back from being down 4-2 for their second-straight Ivy League weekend sweep, the first such sweep since 2015. Columbia got top notch pitching from the starter,
Joe Sheets, winning pitcher
Billy Black (2-4),
Saajan May and
Brandon Madrigal as the Columbia offense came alive once again in the later part of the game.
"
Joe Sheets gave us a solid start again and our bullpen came in and gave our offense time to get going," said head coach
Brett Boretti. "I thought that [Zach] Fogell pitched a great game for Brown, and we were fortunate to get his pitch count up to where we got into their bullpen.
"
EJ Kreutzmann and
Joshua Solomon had two big hits today and the offense is finding ways to create some big innings late.
Anton Lazits,
Tyler MacGregor and
Weston Eberly all had strong weekends at the plate."
The Lions hit three home runs in the game, with the two big blasts coming off the bats of Solomon and Eberly in the eighth and ninth innings respectively.
Andy Blake had himself a solid day going 3-5 and his solo blast in the first inning got the Lions going to open the game and set the foundation for the eventual comeback.
While on the mound a powerful 4.2 innings from Sheets was augmented by Black's 2.1 innings of relief. The Columbia bullpen kept the Lions in the game as they gave up only two runs late after the comeback had already been completed and the Lions had built a comfortable lead.
HOW IT HAPPENED: The first inning was very eventful, with both sides trading solo blasts. Blake got the scoring started with a one-out blast to very familiar left center field to quickly put Columbia up 1-0. The Bears answered that with a solo home run of their own in the bottom half of the frame to quickly tie things up and the game was off and running.
But rather quickly, over the middle innings, things morphed into a pitching duel as Sheets would settle in quite nicely, at one point retiring 10 straight Bears with the second and third innings being one-two-three innings. In the fifth, Brown finally got to Sheets scoring three runs on a handful of singles that knocked in the runs and after five innings the Bears held a 4-1 lead over Columbia.
Columbia began its comeback in the seventh, chipping away at the Bears lead with a Lazits double and a two-out
Austin Mowrey triple to right center which scored Lazits from first. After Black held the Bears scorless in the bottom half of the frame, Columbia came to bat feeling the bats starting to come alive.
And alive they came.
Blake led off the eighth with a single, and he was advanced to third on a MacGregor double to left. With runners on second and third, the Bears made a pitching change and on the second pitch of Eberly at-bat the Lion catcher smacked a single up the middle to score both MacGregor and Blake.
With no outs and two already across the game was tied up at 4-4, and after a Schott reached on a fielder's choice, Lazits kept the order moving with a single to the right-side advancing Schott to second.
In an almost identical spot to the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, up stepped Kreutzmann with a chance to come through in the clutch. Kreutzmann did not disappoint, smacking a single to center that scored Schott and advanced Lazits to second. But more importantly it put the Lions in front for the first time since the top of the first inning.
The score sat at 5-4 when Solomon stepped up to the plate with a pair of Lions on base and only one out, it took only two pitches for him to see what he wanted, and the Lion senior center fielder crushed a 1-0 pitch to dead center field for a three-run home run to blow the doors off the game and put the Lions up 8-4.
In the bottom half of the frame, Brown would add another run to make it 8-5. But Columbia had the answer and then some in the top of the ninth. A leadoff single from Blake led to him coming around on the MacGregor RBI double to erase Brown's run in the previous frame.
Eberly then came to the plate and after fouling off a pair of pitches got what he wanted, hitting an absolute moonshot into left field to bring home MacGregor and give himself a pair of RBIs on the two-run home run, putting the score at 11-5.
Brown would work another run in the bottom half of the ninth, but it was too little too late for the Bears as the Lions' comeback was done and the 11-6 win gave Columbia its second-straight Ivy League weekend sweep.
GAME NOTES: Columbia has won seven straight games … The Lions now have six straight Ivy League wins … This was the second straight weekend the Lions have swept an Ivy League weekend … It was the first time since 2015 the Lions have swept back-to-back Ivy League weekends … MacGregor now has an 11-game hitting streak, which is the longest hitting streak by a Lion since Julian Bury's 19 game hitting streak from 2019-20 … Hage has reached base in all 25 games he has played in … This was the sixth straight game Columbia has scored at least 10 runs … The Lions batted .362 over the weekend … They held Brown to .255 and had a team ERA of 5.67 … In two appearances, May pitched 3.2 innings out of the pen, giving up only one run on three hits for a 2.45 ERA on the weekend … Both Lazits and Blake hit .500, with both getting a home run … The Lions hit five home runs and had 34 RBIs over the weekend.
UP NEXT: The Lions then return to New York City for a Tuesday, Apr. 12 meeting with Fordham with first pitch set for 3:30 p.m. Columbia returns to Ivy League play next weekend when they host Harvard over Apr. 16-17.
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).
