CU ends disappointing season versus Penn

An Ivy League title may not be in the cards for the Columbia baseball team this year, but there’s no reason why the Lions can’t finish conference play strong and ruin another team’s chances of clinching the division themselves.

Columbia (17-23, 7-9 Ivy) will play a pair of doubleheaders against Penn (17-19, 8-8 Ivy), the first today at home and the second on Saturday in Philadelphia.

The Lions are on a five-game losing streak, and four of these five losses were decided by three runs or less. In its last outing, the Light Blue was swept by Fordham University on the road on Wednesday, dropping the first game 6-3 and the second 10-5. “We’ve lost five games in a row now and that’s not the type of team we want to remember,” head coach Brett Boretti said. “We want to remember ourselves as playing better baseball than what we’ve been displaying recently.”

Although the Light Blue has had some individual standouts this season, Boretti feels that all of the Lions are necessary for the team to run as a well-oiled machine. “When we’re successful, everybody’s chipping in,” he said. “If you look back at the games that we’ve played well in, you look up and down the lineup and nine guys in the lineup have a hit.”

Penn began the Ivy season on a hot streak, winning six of its first eight games. However, the Quakers have recently fallen behind in the Gehrig division after dropping three out of four to Cornell this past weekend. With a .500 record in the conference, Penn is barely still in contention for the division title. Penn’s only win in the four-game series against Cornell came in game two on Sunday, pitched by senior Paul Cusick. Cusick was named the Big 5 Pitcher of the Week for the third time in four weeks after throwing a complete-game victory. The Quakers have won the last six games he has started. “He’s a guy that came in and pitched quite a bit as a freshman. I think he ran into a couple of injuries in the last few years, and from an outside perspective looking in, it’s a compliment to his work ethic and their staff,” Boretti said of Cusick. “He’s having a heck of a year. His strikeout number is leading the league, his ERA in the tops, and he’s been pitching very, very well, so for us to be able to do something against him would definitely be a challenge.”

The Lions will try to take advantage of Penn’s recent offensive struggles, as the Quakers only scored four runs in their entire second twinbill on Monday against Cornell. Penn was shutout the first game, 3-0, and its pitching was lit up in the nightcap, losing 13-4. Like Columbia, the Quakers have been uncharacteristically silent at the plate, but they still have threats the Light Blue needs to be aware of. Jeremy Maas and Greg Zebrack both boast batting averages of about .320, and each has five homers going into the weekend. “The Penn series has always been a very tight, closely played series,” Boretti said. “It’s two programs that mirror each other in a lot of ways, and it’s New York versus Philadelphia, so guys should be fired up. On top of it all, Penn’s still alive, so to send them home packing would be a good motivational factor as well.”

Friday’s twinbill will be Senior Day. The Light Blue is bidding farewell to nine seniors after this weekend. Four of these Lions have been consistent producers in the lineup all season: Leadoff catalyst Nick Cox, homer-hungry Jason Banos, and shortstops Alex Ferrera and Alex Godshall. In addition, the starting rotation will lose two of its staples: Dan Bracey and Geoff Whitaker. Although the Light Blue has a promising batch of underclassmen, the younger players will have big shoes to fill. The class of 2011 has the second most Ivy wins in school history with 43. “Those guys have had excellent careers here and I know if I was an underclassmen or a classmate it would be something a little extra to try to send them out on a winning note and do everything to make that happen,” Boretti said.

The games on Friday and Saturday are both scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The Columbia seniors will be honored at Robertson Field at Satow Stadium prior to Friday’s first pitch.