WEST POINT, N.Y. — HISTORY!!
With its 16th straight win, Columbia Baseball (23-13) set a program record for consecutive wins, taking down Army (20-19), 9-4 to rewrite the record books in a late afternoon game, on Wed., April 27, at Johnson Stadium at Doubleday Field, which saw
Andy Blake go a perfect 5-for-5 from the plate and Columbia's pitching hold Army scoreless over the final three innings in the record setting victory.
The consecutive wins began on April 2 when Columbia completed a comeback win to beat Princeton in 10 innings, and with the 9-4 win, the Lions broke the previous record set by the 2014 squad which went 15-straight without dropping a game. Columbia also remains second in the nation for active consecutive wins, sitting behind only Central Michigan's current 18 game run.
"The pitching and defense today were real good," said head coach
Brett Boretti. "We are enjoying our time on the field together a lot right now."
Brandon Madrigal (1-0) snagged the win, putting up three solid innings, giving up just one run on two hits. Over the final frames,
Camron Hubble and
Billy Black combined for three scoreless innings of work, giving up only four hits as the Lions slowly pulled away with two runs in the eighth to put the finishing touches on the day.
At the dish, the Columbia offense put up a pair of crooked numbered innings, and over the middle innings from the second to the fourth scored seven runs to create a gap between them and the Black Knights. Blake knocked in three runs and smashed his ninth home run of the season as part of his perfect day at the plate, while in the leadoff spot
Cole Hage got on base three times, going 2-for-4 with a walk and scoring two runs to give Columbia a strong one-two punch at the top of the lineup Army had no answer for all day long.
HOW IT HAPPENED: Army got on the board first with a leadoff single that eventually led to the first run of the game, but Army's 1-0 lead was short lived as starting pitcher
Phil Healy settled in nicely to put together a 1-2-3 inning in the second for his solid two innings of work, which saw him give up only the one run and one hit while retiring the Black Knights in the first when they had worked a pair of runners.
It did not take Columbia long to tie things up, scoring a run in the top of the second to answer Army's opening run. A
Hayden Schott walk got things started and after
Anton Lazits walked and
EJ Kreutzmann singled, Schott was on third as the bags were packed with Lions.
Joshua Solomon then knocked in Schott with a sacrifice fly to center, and without missing a beat the Lions had gotten on the board and were off and running.
The top of the third started with a bang, thanks to Blake's one-out solo shot to left center on an 0-2 pitch, putting the Lions in front. A lead they would not give back for the rest of the game, and in the third the Lions were not done.
Tyler MacGregor reached on a single, following Blake's home run, and he was worked around, eventually scoring on a Schott RBI single to center. Lazits followed that up with a single of his own and after a double steal by the pair of Lions, Kreutzmann drew a walk to load the bases.
Solomon then put the ball in play towards third base where the Army third basemen was unable to handle the hit, allowing Solomon to reach on the fielding error, scoring both Lazits and Schott to put the score at 5-1 in favor of the Lions.
Madrigal then took the bump and with a 1-2-3 inning, sat the Black Knights down to set the tone for the game, that the Lions had come to play. Another run was added for the Lions in the fourth, thanks to back-to-back doubles from Hage and Blake, with Hage scoring on a sacrifice fly to left giving the Lions three straight innings scoring at least one run, extending their lead to 6-1.
Army got three runs over the next two innings, but the Lions had answers for the Black Knights, adding a run of their own in the top of the sixth, on a Blake RBI single, and entering the bottom of the sixth Columbia held a 7-2 lead.
The Black Knights did attempt to get back in the game, scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth to get within three runs of the Lions. Army would not score again, thanks to the great pitching from Hubble and Black, with the pair of Lion relievers pitching a shutout over the final three frames.
Columbia put the finishing touches of its 16th straight win in the eighth, adding two runs, all with two outs. It began with an
Austin Mowrey single to left, which was followed by an RBI double down the left field line by Hage. Blake then, for the second time in the game, made it back-to-back doubles, going into the opposite field with a double down the right field line to score Hage and make it 9-4.
Another 1-2-3 inning, the second of the game, turned out by Columbia pitching shut down the Black Knights in the ninth to finish off Columbia's historic victory in the final midweek game of the 2022 season.
GAME NOTES
- Columbia has won 16 straight games …
- The 16-game winning streak sets a program record …
- The old record of 15 straight games had been set during the 2014 season …
- The Lions are alone in the nation with the second longest current winning streak …
- Columbia now has 52 home runs on the season, putting them alone at second all-time in program history for team home runs in a single season …
- Columbia has not committed an error in four straight games …
- The Lions stole three bases, giving them 63 on the season and they now sit two away from cracking the top-5 in program history for stolen bases in a single season …
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Andy Blake went 5-for-5 on the day, the first Lion to have at least five hits in a game since Liam McGill had five at North Florida on Mar. 16, 2019 …
- Hage has reached base in all 34 games he has played in …
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Andy Blake now has a 15-game hitting streak …
UP NEXT: The Lions now turn their attention to the final two Ivy League weekends, with this weekend's (Apr. 30-May 1) trip to Cornell up first, with first pitch in the Saturday doubleheader set for 11:30 a.m. Columbia will wrap up its 2022 regular season with a trip to Dartmouth from May 14-15, in the final league series of the season.
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).
