Baseball Claims Third Straight Gehrig Crown With 4-2 Win Over Penn in Playoff – Columbia University Athletics
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NEW YORK – The Columbia baseball team secured its third consecutive Gehrig Division title with a 4-2 victory over Penn in a one-game playoff in front of a packed Robertson Field at Satow Stadium Saturday. Logan Boyher’s solo home run in the bottom of the seventh proved to be the difference as the Lions improve to 27-14 on the year.
Columbia will advance to the Ivy League Championship where they will host Dartmouth from May 9-10 (if necessary) in a best of three series for the third straight year. Game times will be announced by the conference in the coming days. Be sure to check back with GoColumbiaLions.com for more information.
The Lions had just five hits, but three of them were home runs. The duo of George Thanopoulos and Kevin Roy were outstanding on the hill. Thanopoulos worked seven innings, allowing just two runs on six hits with seven strikeouts to even his record at 4-4. Roy worked a perfect final two frames to pick up his first save of the season.
Jordan Serena set the tone early with a leadoff homer, just the second of his career, over the leftfield wall to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Penn starting pitcher Ronnie Glenn struggled with command after that, hitting Robb Paller and walking Falcone to set the table for Gus Craig.
A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position and Craig delivered a sac fly to add an insurance run after one inning of play.
Penn found some holes through the Columbia infield in the third inning, recording back-to-back singles off Thanopoulos with no outs. A balk pushed the runners to second and third and the Quakers evened the score, 2-2, with two groundouts.
Penn’s best opportunity to take the lead came in the sixth inning when Austin Bossart and Mitch Montaldo reached on singles and a walk loaded the bases with two outs. Thanopoulos got out of the jam, blowing a fastball by Jonah Campbell to retire the side.
The Quakers’ Mike Reitcheck was cruising along until the seventh, allowing just one hit and two base-runners during his outing until Boyher launched a 1-0 pitch over the tall wall in center to put Columbia in front for good, 3-2.
David Vandercook added a big insurance run with his fourth homer of the year, a solo blast in the eighth.
From there Roy did the rest, using his defense for the final six outs and closing out the game with just 17 pitches.
Roy’s save was the 13th of the season by the Columbia pitching staff, setting a new program record.
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