PHILADELPHIA — Owen Estabrook and
Hunter Snyder came through with clutch ninth-inning RBI doubles, and Columbia held off a late Penn rally to earn a pivotal 4-3 Ivy League victory on Friday at Tommy Lasorda Field. The victory, coupled with a Dartmouth win over Harvard, clinched an Ivy League Tournament berth for the Lions (20-16, 12-4), who have qualified for the postseason for the seventh consecutive season.
Locked in a 2-2 tie with two outs in the top of the ninth, Estabrook dropped a hit just in front of a diving Penn rightfielder. The ball bounced into the corner for a double, allowing Tate Vogler to come all the way around to put the Lions in front. Snyder followed with his second RBI of the game, tacking on a crucial insurance run with a double to left-center.
That extra run proved vital. In the bottom half of the inning, Penn (18-15, 11-5) threatened with back-to-back one-out singles. Davis Baker laced a ball into the right-center gap, scoring one and nearly tying the game, but Columbia executed a textbook relay from the outfield to cut down the tying run at the plate. Reliever Alex Sotiropoulos then induced a flyout to seal the win.
Sotiropoulos (4-3) picked up the victory with 2.2 innings of relief, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits. Starter Joe Sheets gave the Lions a strong outing, tossing 6.1 innings of five-hit, one-run ball with four strikeouts.
Columbia's offense was paced by Vogler, who went 2-for-4 and scored twice. Skye Selinsky sparked a fifth-inning rally with a leadoff double, followed by a Vogler single that set up a Snyder sacrifice fly and Sam Miller's RBI double, which gave Columbia its first lead at 2-1.
Penn tied the game in the eighth after a leadoff walk came around to score on a defensive miscue, one of the few blemishes on an otherwise sound day for Columbia's defense. The Quakers got a shutdown effort from reliever Marty Coyne, who struck out five over three perfect innings to keep the game within reach before the decisive ninth.
Baker finished 2-for-4 with two RBI for Penn, while leadoff man Connor Chavez added four hits. Despite out-hitting Columbia 8-7 and committing just one error, the Quakers left nine runners stranded.
Columbia, which is winners of seven-straight, moves one game ahead of Penn in the conference standings. The Lions can clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title with two more wins and a pair of Yale losses over the weekend.
The Lions and Quakers will wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Sunday, April 27, with game one set to begin at 11:30 a.m. on ESPN+.
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