Steeerike Three!

As “spring” begins and Columbia baseball starts its season, we can look forward to a changing tone in the school’s year. Beyond that basketball continues to own and things are looking good.  Gladly we have maximally effective sports commentator Max Rettig to provide coverage.

The Columbia baseball team opened its season in sunny and warm Florida. The Lions began their Ivy League title defense in shutout fashion, taking the 1st of 4 games in Tampa by a 1-0 score. Aaron Silbar came through with an RBI single in the first inning for what would be the game’s only run, as starter David Speer pitched 8 excellent innings, combining with Zack Tax to keep otherwise hot USF to just 5 hits. Jordan Serena got on base to lead off the game, and then stole 2nd base, allowing Silbar’s hit to bring him home. Speer was the star of the game, though. He did not allow a hit until the 4th inning, and even after allowing a USF single and double, putting runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs, Speer got three straight outs to prevent any damage. Speer took care of the final 15 USF batters before Zack Tax came on to face four batters, allowing only a walk in securing the save, and season-opening win, for Columbia.

Jordan Serena finished as the leading hitter, going 3-4. Speer finished with this magnificent stat line: 8 innings, 5 hits, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts and 0 walks. The win is Columbia’s first season-opening win since 2002, and first season-opening shutout since 1999.

The Lions won the day-cap of a double-header, 6-4, before losing the night-cap and following day’s games, 5-13 and 2-7 respectively. The team is 2-2 and travels to face Kennesaw St. next weekend.

Softball: The Lions travelled to Hampton, VA for their second tournament of the season, facing Hartford, Farleigh Dickinson and Hampton. The team won its first game of the season, defeating Hartford 7-3 on the power of the triple. Shelby Unger gave the Lions an early 3-0 lead, while Kayla Shimoda’s 6th-inning triple brought in 2 more runs. Emily Snodgrass went 3-4 with 2 RBIs and Brooke Darling threw a complete game, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and collecting 7 strikeouts. The team won a forfeited game against Farleigh Dickinson and lost 2-7 to host team Hampton. Tonia Wu and Brooke Darling combined for 10 strikeouts. The Lions (1-6) play next from March 14-16th at Hofstra.

Basketball: The Lions won a big game against Dartmouth on Friday, 84-72. Alex Rosenberg and Maodo Lo again led Lions scoring, with 31 and 16 points respectively. Columbia made 13 of 24 from 3-point range to set a new single-season record with 223 3-point shots. Alex Rosenberg also set a Columbia program record, hitting a perfect 17-17 from the free throw line and missing just one shot the entire game (6-7 from the floor). Rosenberg and the Lions set a slew of other records as well; visit this page to see them all. The Lions lost a critical game at Harvard the next night, 47-80. The Lions (18-11, 7-5 Ivy League) play Penn and Princeton to close out the season this weekend at home. Go support the team!

Throwing smoke via gocolumbialions.com