Poor Pitching Sinks CU at Rutgers

The Columbia baseball team would like to forget the month of April.

The last two weeks have seen the Lions squander a great start to the season by going 1-7 and losing six straight, culminating in yesterday's 21-6 loss to Big East leading Rutgers.

The Light Blue was let down by several poor pitching performances. Starter Daniel Bajger was chased after a second inning that saw the Scarlet Knights score three runs behind three walks and a balk. The Lions got one of those runs back in the third and headed into the bottom of the inning trailing 3-2. But reliever Andrew Walther was unable to keep the game close, surrendering three runs while recording only one out in the third.

From there, the floodgates opened, as the next five relievers would give up an additional 15 runs in five and two-thirds innings. Columbia trailed only 6-3 in the fifth, but Rutgers exploded for nine runs in the frame. Reliever Matt Berninger was able to record only one out while allowing six runs and committing a throwing error in the inning before being replaced by Chris Hunter.

For the fourth time in the last six losses, the Columbia offense struggled as a whole. The team failed to draw any walks and has seen its on-base percentage steadily decline in recent games. On an individual level, first baseman Ron Williams continued his hot hitting, driving in three runs on two hits. Williams has been the most consistent Lion hitter during the losing streak and was named to the Ivy League honor roll for the week of April 10 after hitting .350 with four RBI in five games last week. Catcher Thomas Stevens drove in the other three runs, while left fielder Jason Banos went 4-5 off the Rutgers pitching staff. Senior co-captain and right fielder Andrew Ward went hitless in four at-bats with one strikeout.

The Lions must now turn their attention toward stepping up their game in Ivy League play. After being swept by both Brown and Yale in doubleheaders, Columbia's Ivy record now sits at 5-7 at the bottom of the Lou Gehrig division standings, two games behind division leader Cornell.

The Lions will head to New Jersey this weekend to take on reigning Ivy League champion Princeton in a two-day, four-game series that could have major playoff implications. The Lions will need patient bats and back-on-track pitching in order to keep their playoff hopes from dwindling away.