Columbia (20-24, 15-5 Ivy) erased a 5-3 Dartmouth (24-15, 15-5 Ivy) lead in the top of the sixth inning on a three-run home run by freshman Alex Ferrera, giving the Lions the lead for the remainder of the contest.
Lions senior pitcher Henry Perkins, who came into the game with two men out and nobody on base in the sixth inning, was able to shut down the Dartmouth scoring threat without giving up a run.
"I'm not a big momentum guy, but it was certainly a big part of the game," head coach Bob Whalen said of Perkins' performance in the sixth inning.
Perkins finished the game, giving up one hit in four innings of work. He walked two batters and struck out three to earn the save.
Jake Pruner '11 took the loss for Dartmouth. He was replaced by Ryan Smith '11 in the sixth inning after surrendering Ferrera's game-winning home run. Pruner gave up six runs on eight hits, walking one batter and striking out four in 5.2 innings.
Freshman Geoff Whitaker started for the Lions. In 4.2 innings he gave up five runs on seven hits, striking out two.
Columbia opened the scoring with a solo homerun by junior Mike Roberts in the second inning. Another homerun and an RBI single in the top of the fifth gave the Lions a 3-0 lead.
Dartmouth responded with five runs in the bottom half of the fifth. Jack Monahan '09 belted a two-run homer to right field, and Nick Santomauro '10 hit a three-run bomb to deep left-center. It was his fourth homerun of the three-game series and gave Dartmouth a 5-3 lead.
A second homerun from Ferrara erased the Lions' two-run deficit in the top of the sixth. The Big Green threatened in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with one out. Perkins got out of the jam, however, striking out Jason Blydell '08 and Johnathon Santopadre '09 and getting Erik Bell '08 to ground out to second.
Perkins was virtually unhittable for the rest of the game -- Dartmouth had only two baserunners in the final three innings. Perkins gave the Lions insurance with a solo homerun just inches to the right of the left field foul pole.
"They made some plays, and what can you say? We hit some balls hard," Whalen said. "After that fifth inning when we scored the runs, how many balls did we hit on the screws? It just didn't go our way."
Santopadre singled to third base in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but Jeff Onstott '11 grounded into a double play, ending the game and giving Columbia the Ivy crown.
"Those guys deserve all the credit in the world," Columbia head coach Brett Boretti said after the game. "At our school there's a different feel for all our sports now. The culture of losing across the campus is changing, across the board for all our sports ... and it's a credit to the work that these guys put in."
The baseball team's win marks Columbia's fourth Ivy title of 2007-2008 and ninth in the last two years, the most titles in that time in the school's history.
The Lions will continue to the NCAA regional tournament with the Ivy's automatic bid given to the Ivy League baseball champions. The loss ends Dartmouth's season.
The Big Green has reached the Ivy League championship four times in Whalen's 19 years as head coach. Whalen is 0-4 in the championship.
"It's very disappointing to us and our players," Whalen said. "Out of all the teams that I've had, this was really a special group. I felt badly for them that we couldn't get a different result. But it's not like we came out and played poorly and seemed to struggle. We played well all year long, really consistently, and played well in big games. I thought we played well today, they just played a little bit better."
