NEW YORK — Make it 10 straight wins for Columbia Baseball (17-13, 9-2 IVY) and eight straight Ivy League wins as the Lions used a wild first game win of 21-12 and a great pitching performance from
Joe Sheets to win the second game, 9-4, to collect a pair of wins over Harvard (13-15, 5-5 IVY) for the third straight Saturday Ivy League doubleheader sweep on Saturday, Apr. 16 at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium.
Over both games the Lions got power from
Hayden Schott,
Cole Hage,
Andy Blake and
Joshua Solomon, with all four Lions hitting at least one home run in both games, and Schott smashing two in the second game. Columbia also smacked seven doubles, getting three from
Tyler MacGregor and two from
Weston Eberly.
While on the mound, Sheets (2-1) put together the best performance from a Lions starter this season, going seven innings of scoreless work to snag the win on the second game of the day, and in the first game
Saajan May (3-0) won his third game of the year coming out of the pen to relive Higgins with four innings of solid work, striking out four along the way.
"Our pitchers did a great job limiting the free bases in some tough conditions today and that was the difference maker all day," said head coach
Brett Boretti. "Our offense took advantage of the situation and we got into a lot of positive counts and got our swings off.
Joe Sheets was tremendous in game two."
Combined, Columbia hit .413 on the day, had 25 RBIs, slugged .893 percent, and struck out only 11 times in 75 at bats. Along with the home runs, Schott went 6-for-9 with eight RBIs and one double and despite not hitting a home run, MacGregor turned in a solid day going 5-for-11 with three doubles showing gap power all day long.
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME ONE): In one of the wilder games the Lions have played in recent memory, the Lions used a seven run first inning to get things going. After
Sean Higgins opened the game by sitting down the Crimson in order, Hage led off the bottom half of the inning with a single up the middle.
Blake then came to the plate and after working the count full, he took the pay-off pitch to center field for a two-run home run, getting the Lions quickly on the board, 2-0, and setting the tone for the power that was coming. MacGregor then smacked a triple to center field to again put Columbia in position to score.
MacGregor scored on a throwing error from the pitcher, on a pick-off attempt of the recently walked Eberly, and Schott brought home Eberly with an RBI double to make it 4-0. Schott would eventually score on an EJ Krutzmann RBI sacrifice to center and with
Anton Lazits on third, after reaching on a single, next up was Solomon.
The Lions center field wrapped up the seven run first inning with a two-run home run to center and after a busy opening frame the Lions led 7-0. Harvard got one run back in the top of the second, but Columbia answered with five more in the bottom half of the frame.
Using small ball, the Lions scored five runs on two hits in the bottom of the second, getting RBIs from Kreutzmann and Solomon, and some help from a pair of Harvard errors. And after two innings Columbia held a 12-1 lead over Harvard.
Columbia committed two errors in the top of the third to allow Harvard to score five runs, with the big blow coming on a two-run home run midway through the inning. But the Lions still held a 12-6 lead despite the Harvard runs allowed and in the bottom half of the frame the Lions got three back.
Hage led off the inning with a blast to center and after Eberly got a single, Schott hit his first home run of the day to bring home Eberly and pad Columbia's lead to 15-6. Harvard again answered in the next frame, scoring two, helped along by another Columbia error, to put the score at 15-8 after four innings of high scoring baseball.
Harvard got within five runs on another two-run home run, this one coming in the fifth, and it put the score at 15-10. Columbia had had enough of the Harvard comeback, using a MacGregor single and a Eberly double to center, the Lions scored a pair of their own runs to push the lead up to 17-10 heading into the final four frames of the game.
A rare one-two-three inning for either team was delivered by May, striking out two Crimson in the inning to shut them down. In the bottom of the sixth, Columbia kept scoring, these runs all coming with two outs.
Hage got a two-out single, Blake walked and after MacGregor scored Hage and Blake on a two RBI double the Lions were up 19-10. On ball four in Eberly's at-bat, the pitch got past the catcher and scored MacGregor from third and after a Schott single, Eberly showed off the speed. Running on contact, Eberly scored from first to add to Columbia's lead, making it 21-10.
In the top of ninth, Harvard scored two more runs, on yet another two-run home run, but it was too little too late as Columbia had already locked up the doubleheader opening win and their program record eighth straight game with at least 10 runs scored.
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME TWO): Offense might have been the story in the first game but pitching from
Joe Sheets was the story in the second game. Putting together the best performance from a Lion starter, the first-year set career highs in innings pitched, seven, strikeouts, seven and pitches thrown.
Sheets got it started in the first, throwing just seven pitches to sit the Crimson down in order. Columbia then picked up right where they left off offensively, going back-to-back to open the bottom half of the first coming off the bats of Hage and Blake respectively.
Another one-two-three inning from Sheets in the third, with the score still sitting at 2-0, allowed the Columbia bats to pad the lead. With two outs, Schott kept his hot bat going, smashing a solo home run high over the center field wall and it put Columbia up 3-0.
The Lions added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to another long blast from Schott who took an 0-1 pitch into center field to score Eberly and put Columbia up 6-0. In the top of the sixth, Sheets got big help from his defense, giving up his first lead off hit of the game, the double play team of
Austin Mowrey,
Jacob Phelps and MacGregor turned a big 4-6-3 double play to erase the lead off runner and keep Sheets out of trouble.
In Sheet's final inning of work, the seventh, the Lion starter was still dealing. Striking out the leadoff hitter and getting the second out of the inning with another strikeout, before getting the final out on a fly out to center.
Solomon added a few key runs to Columbia's lead in the seventh, smashed a three-run home run deep over the center field wall and into the Harlem River to put Columbia up 9-0. Harvard did get four runs in the eighth, but it had little to affect the outcome as the Lions got the final outs they needed to lock up yet another doubleheader sweep with the 9-4 win.
GAME NOTES:
- Columbia has won 10 straight games …
- The 10-game winning streak is the longest since 2014 when Columbia won 15 straight from Apr. 4-25, 2014 …
- The eight-game Ivy League winning streak is the longest for the Lions since getting 12 straight in 2014 …
- Columbia has outscored its Ivy League foes 104-44 over its eight-game Ivy League winning streak …
- The five home runs hit in the second game are one shy of the program record six home runs in a single game …
- The second game's five home runs are the third game of the season the Lions have hit five home runs …
- It is the fourth and fifth straight games with at least two home runs hit …
- Hage's leadoff home run in the second game is the first leadoff home run hit by a Lion since Joe Engel vs. Cornell on May 24, 2019 …
- Schott becomes the second Lion this season to hit two home runs in a game …
- It's the third time this season the Lions have hit back-to-back home runs …
- The 21 runs scored in the first game are the most scored in a game since Columbia scored 23 against Dartmouth on Mar. 30, 2019 …
- MacGregor now has a 14-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 28 games he has played in …
UP NEXT: The Lions remain at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium when they go for the weekend sweep of Harvard with first pitch on Sunday, Apr. 17, set for 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).
