Baseball wins three of four from Columbia to rake Gehrig lead

It started out low, a chant meant to rally the visiting Columbia baseball team.

"Baseball's fun."

But once Lion designated hitter Nickolas Solaro blasted a three-run home run to deep left field, it grew louder and louder. The crowd could hear it. The team could hear it. It grew from a rally into a taunt.

"Baseball's fun. Hitting homers is fun," Columbia growled from the dugout, suddenly confident with a 5-0 lead.

They were right. Baseball is fun. And this weekend it was more fun for the Tigers than it was for the Lions.

Coming into the weekend, the two teams found themselves knotted atop the Ivy League's Gehrig Division standings with identical league records of 5-3. Columbia (12-21 overall, 6-6 Ivy League) came to Clarke Field for four games as the upstart, the team looking to dethrone the defending champion.

After Princeton took the first game of Friday's doubleheader with a 1-0 pitching gem by sophomore righthander Ryan Quillian, the Lions seemed to be gaining momentum by the time they chased freshman lefthander Nathan Miller in the third inning of the nightcap. The chants were loud and biting, as Columbia seemed to think this series might be the time. The visitors went on to win, 9-2, cruising to the easy win. Baseball is fun when you win that big.

But on Saturday sophomore righthander David Boehle brought the fun to the Tiger bench with a complete-game, 6-1, win in the first game. And junior shortstop Pat Boran had fun hitting homers, leading Princeton to an 8-5 victory in the second game. Baseball is fun when you take sole possession of first place.

"It was the same attitude we have every series — we want to win the series," head coach Scott Bradley said. "You hope that if you play well you can get three out of four, and that's what happened."

As has been the case for every Ivy weekend this season, Quillian started Princeton's series with a dominant performance. The righthander tossed his third-consecutive complete game and second-consecutive shutout on Friday, singlehandedly carrying the team to the win. The sophomore has not given up a run in fourteen straight innings, a span over which opposing hitters have recorded only six hits.

"[Quillian] pitched very well for us last year — which has really helped his confidence," Bradley said. "And this year he's really improved and turned into a leader."

The following day, Boehle picked up where his classmate left off. Pitching a complete game of his own, Boehle carried a shutout into the final inning of the weekend's third game, allowing only two hits and striking out five in his first six innings. Solaro connected for his second homer of the weekend to spoil the shutout, but Boehle closed out the game and the win four batters later.

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The second game on Saturday saw Columbia's best chance of preventing the doubleheader sweep. After relieving junior righthander Chris Higgins in the fourth inning, junior righthander Tom Rowland kept Columbia at a distance into the ninth inning. Bradley left Rowland in the game to finish the job. The junior got the first two outs, but with a runner on second, senior third baseman Sean McNally drew in what might have been the final out of the game. But his throw went low and senior first baseman Andrew Hanson could not get it in, leaving runners on first and third.

As junior closer Bill Broome warmed up in the bullpen, Solaro continued his offensive outpouring, singling in a run to make the score 8-5. One single later, Bradley visited Rowland on the mound with the bases loaded and the winning run at the plate. Instead of bringing in the closer, Bradley stayed with Rowland to finish the game.

With all runners moving, Lion first baseman Pete Aswad sent a grounder into the gap between second and first. Senior second baseman Tim Phillips made a diving stop and tossed the ball to Rowland, who shuffled his feet to the bag for the photo finish with Aswad. The umpire paused for a second, but then punched the runner out, ending the Columbia rally and the game.

Baseball is fun.