NEW YORK, May 1--The varsity baseball team muddled through to an 8-6 victory at Columbia this afternoon, in what must surely rate as one of the worst-played games since they moved the sport out of the cow pastures and onto the skin diamonds.

It was a most gratifying win for Norm Shepard's flock, being their first in Eastern League play this year. But the most distinctive feature of the contest was the bewildering assortment of fielding errors and mental boners which kept the spectators chortling for a full three-and-one half hours.

The only respectable playing all afternoon came from Crimson pitcher Wally Cook. This unfortunate, although touched for nine hits in seven innings, permitted the opposition only one earned run. However, the support afforded him by his teammates made the job almost impossible.

Lions Take Early Lead

Cook was most unfairly treated in the first two innings, when Columbia was presented with an early 4-0 lead. The Crimson got one run back in the third, and then tied the score an inning later with the day's one legitimate rally. Doubles by Bob Forbush and Mouse Kasarjian, and singles by Cook, George Harrington, and Al Martin produced three tallies.

The lead see-sawed back and forth in the middle innings, and when the Crimson came to bat in the eighth, it found itself on the short end of 6-5 score. However, Harrington's third hit, a single by Boulris, and two Lion errors put the varsity in front to stay. Four more fielding boners gave the winners an insurance run in the ninth.

The grand total of errors finally reached fifteen. Later on, Norm Shepard said he had never seen anything like it. And the official scorer, as he screwed his head back on, was heard to remark, "I had the toughest workout of anybody in the park.