Playing at home has been quite sweet for the Lions in Ivy play, as they won three out of four games this weekend against the Princeton Tigers. The three wins brought the Lions’ record to 17-22, 9-7 in Ivy play. In a way, the three wins avenged last year’s series with the Tigers, where Princeton took three out of the four games to take Columbia out of contention for the Lou Gehrig division title. In much the same way, the Light Blue’s three wins this weekend combined with Cornell’s three wins mean that Princeton will have to take all four from the Big Red next weekend to claim the division.

Unfortunately, the aforementioned Big Red wins also mean that the Lions have been eliminated from winning the division title. But regardless, it was great to see the Lions string those wins together after struggling at Cornell. So let’s go back over some of those highs of the weekend in this week’s “three quick thoughts.”

1. Starting pitching prowess

This has been a common thread throughout the season, but the Lions’ starting pitching this weekend was yet again stellar. Senior Pat Lowery, juniors Tim Giel and Stefan Olson, and sophomore David Speer combined to go  21.2 innings over the weekend, and gave up just eight earned runs over those innings. Lowery was especially brilliant in game one on Friday, going six innings while striking out four, walking four and allowing just two hits.

On the year, the Lions are second in the league with a 4.54 ERA, revealing just how consistent this team’s starting pitching has been.

2. Just one away from history

All season long, junior left fielder Dario Pizzano has been one of the Lions’ top performers. He’s leading the team in hits (44), RBI (28), walks (29), total bases (67)… you get the picture, right? Well, with his third home run of the season on Friday afternoon, Pizzano is now just one long ball away from tying the Columbia record for career home runs.

Pizzano is currently sitting at 24 career round-trippers, and although chances are he’ll get that record eventually, whether he can get to it this week is certainly an intriguing storyline to watch as the season comes to a close.

3. Playing for pride

While, yes, the Lions have technically been eliminated from the postseason, there is still plenty the Lions can play for. They have six games left on the schedule, a doubleheader against Fordham on Wednesday, and then a four-game set against Penn this weekend.

Should they win all six of those games, they’d finish with an overall record above .500 for the second time in three years. Additionally, should the Lions win all of their games against Penn this weekend, they will have a good chance at finishing in second place in the Lou Gehrig division. Although Princeton is currently in second place, they’ll be taking on the still red-hot Cornell this weekend, which will certainly be a tough task for the reeling Tigers.

So even though the Lions can’t make the postseason, they can still show the positive character of their team by winning out this week.