The Columbia Lions baseball team had its home opener on Saturday, a double-header against the Holy Cross Crusaders.  As per traditional college double-header rules, the first of two games would be seven innings, while the second would be scheduled for nine.Columbia starting pitcher Pat Lowery looked to get his first win, having begun the season 0-2.Bottom second runners on second and third, Mike Fischer gets an RBI ground-out to put Columbia on the board. The inning would continue after a botched run-down attempt and an RBI single from Jon Eisen, and Columbia would be up 3 at the end of 2.

Top of the third, Holy Cross would answer with a big inning of their own, assisted by three fielding errors from the Columbia infield. Eric Oxford who was three for four on the day notched a single to right to put the Crusaders within one.Meanwhile Holy Cross’s John Pedrotty settled down. He finished with five strikeouts on the day, and gave up only one earned run in seven innings. Lowery on the other hand, would begin to unravel, giving up runs in the fifth and the sixth inning, the latter a result of yet another fielding mistake.

Nick Ciardiello went three for three on the day and no hit was bigger than his rope to left which put Holy Cross ahead.Columbia would not be rattled by their close loss in the first game, and came out of the gate strong scoring in the first inning off a double from designated hitter Alexander Aurrichio. Columbia’s Geoff Whitaker was lights out, pitching seven scoreless frames and striking out six. Columbia would continue to put the hurt on Holy Cross pitching, scoring four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

The final score, 11-1 proved that Columbia Lions could hit and pitch against a solid team in Holy Cross. They play one more double-header against Holy Cross this weekend before hosting Dartmouth and Harvard in double-headers the following weekend.