Sophomore third baseman John Fallon continued his power streak with his fifth home run of the season, the most in the Ivy League, roping a belt-high pitch into the trees beyond the left field wall to give his team a 2-1 lead after four innings. The score stayed that way into the ninth inning, when Lions’ first baseman Nick Maguire hit a two-run single off of senior righty T.J. Laurisch to give Columbia a 3-2 advantage.

Skinner responded in the bottom of the frame with a two-out, RBI triple but was stranded at third. The Crimson would come to regret that, when Shane Adams plated Maguire with a single up the middle off of senior southpaw Sean O’Neill.

HARVARD 11,

COLUMBIA 3 (7 INNINGS)

The Crimson offense started off the weekend in style, recording its second double-digit output of the season in support of junior right-hander Nick Gruener. Two freshmen played central roles in the outburst, with freshmen Pat McColl and Trent Bryan combining for five hits and nine RBIs.

Gruener pitched his fourth consecutive complete game in the shortened game, striking out eight Lions batters in seven innings of three-run ball.

“I felt strong,” Gruener said. “My arm’s been feeling really good, and I think that I hit 94-95 again, which is pretty exciting. The team hit well behind me, scored a lot of runs, and I can win any game if I get that hitting.”

McColl opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI groundout to first and then added an RBI single in the bottom of the third to extend the team’s lead to 3-0. The Lions got one run back in the top of the fourth after an RBI double before Harvard quickly responded with four in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-1 lead.

The Crimson put the game to bed one inning later, with Bryan’s bases-clearing double resulting in three runs and McColl’s single, the final of his career-high five RBIs, pushing the lead to 11-1.

–Staff writer Manav Khandelwal can be reached at manavkhandelwal@college.harvard.edu.