Tide falls to Donegal in baseball

In five of their previous six games, the Columbia baseball team had given up double figures in runs.


The lone game during that stretch was a 6-2 loss yesterday at the hands of Northern Lebanon.

The Tide was back on the home field today for a windy afternoon of baseball against Donegal.

And despite giving up three runs in the first inning, the Tide ‘9' battled the Indians tough before dropping a 6-3 decision.

Coach Bob Peterson’s team will be back in action Thursday afternoon with a non-league game at Reading Central Catholic, before returning home Friday for a Section 4 game with Pequea Valley at the Glat.

In that first inning, the Indians scored all three of their runs with two outs, on two singles, a double and a walk. After that, Tide starter Tyler Aruda settled down.

Columbia got its offense going in the second inning. With one out, Johnny Vasquez and Jimmy Lee ripped back-to-back doubles to make it a 3-1 game.

Donegal, who is famous for “small ball,” did just that in the third. Coach Chris Miller’s team used an infield hit, stolen base, infield out and a fly ball to score their fourth run and take a 4-1 lead.

Columbia tried to answer in their half of the third. With two outs, Seth Lefever singled and Michael Burke walked, but the Tide was kept off the board when Brandon Aukamp grounded out.

In the fifth, the Tide pulled within 4-2 on bases hits by Tyler Harrison and Lefever.

In the sixth, it got interesting.

Aukamp led the inning off with a single and Lee and Josh Elliot followed with walks. With one out, Seth Aruda, pinch-hitting, hit a sac fly to center and it was 4-3. But that would be as close as the Tide would get.

In the top of the seventh, Tyler Aruda was running out of gas on the mound and walked two hitters with one out. Donegal ended Aruda’s day on the mound with a screaming double down the left field line to plate the two runners who walked to get some insurance runs.

In their half of the seventh, Lefever reached third after Donegal’s right fielder dropped a fly ball and moved up on a stolen base and wild pitch but cold not dent the plate.

Big inning dooms Tide

For almost five innings Friday afternoon at Glatfelter Field, Crimson Tide sophomore Jimmy Lee was doing his best Jamie Moyer imitation. He was dazzling Elco batters with an assortment of pitches.


In the fifth, Lee struck out the first batter he faced, then gave up a bunt base hit and got the next batter to fly deep to right to Johnny Vazquez.

He had two easy outs and the Tide was leading 2-1. After the fly ball to right, another Elco batter doubled to right. And it looked like Lee was going to get out of the inning when a ground ball was hit to Tide third sacker Brandon Aukamp.

What should have been the third out turned into an eight run inning and a 9-2 Elco lead. The visiting Raiders turned the big inning into an 11-2 win.

After the error on Aukamp, the Raiders saw the next six hitters reach base, four with hits, one of which was a bases clearing double.

While that inning may have turned the game around, the Tide left this one get away in their half of the third and fourth innings.

In the third, Josh Elliot and Brandon Arnold led off the inning with singles. After Seth Lefever struck out, Michael Burke blooped a hit to center to score one run. Aukamp then reached on an error to load the bases with one out. But, Lee struck out and Johnny Vasquez flied to right to end the threat.

In the fourth, Jake Sentz ripped a double down the left field line and Cain Warfel followed with a single. The Tide had runners on the corners with no outs. But things went bad for the Tide. Chris Aruda, the courtesy runner for catcher Warfel was picked off, Elliot struck out and Arnold flied out to center to end the second threat.

And when you are going bad, bad things happen and they did to the Tide in the fifth.

Things started good for the Tide in this one.

The Tide scored an unearned run in the first, when Elco had trouble fielding the ball and led 1-0.

Elco tied the game in the third with some sall ball, using three walks and a sacrifice fly.

But the Tide’s inability to come up with the big hit in the third and fourth innings hurt.

Elco scored one more in the sixth on an infield bunt, walk two balks called on Aruda, who became the pitcher in relief of Lee.

In the seventh, Aruda was called for three more balks, which allowed Elco to score another run. A nice diving catch by Arnold in center kept Elco from scoring a few more runs in the final frame.

Tide drops make-up

The Columbia baseball team was a 10-0 loser Tuesday night to Section 3 leading Lampeter-Strasburg.
The game was postponed from Friday.
The Tide had just five hits for the game.
The Pioneers, who hosted the game under the lights, scored three times in the second inning and twice in the third. They also scored once in the fifth and four more times in the sixth.
Brandon Arnold making his first start of the year, struck out three and walked six, until he was relieved in the sixth.

Tide drops slugfest

It was a day for hitters on Monday afternoon at Glatfelter Field as Manheim Central and the Crimson Tide combined for 21 runs and 20 hits. The bad part for the Tide was Manheim Central scored 15 of the 21 runs in a 15-6 win over the Tide.
Columbia dominated the first three innings of the game, leading 4-1. But "Manheim Magic" hit in the top of the fourth inning when the Barons exploded for eight runs to take a 9-4 lead in the game.
Columbia pulled within 9-5 with a solo run in their half of the fourth, but the Barons were not donem scoring twice in the fifth and four times in the sixth to bust the game open.
The two teams also combined for 14 strikeouts and 17 walks.

Burke homers in loss

It was a beautiful afternoon to sit out and watch baseball at Glatfelter Field. Unfortunately, the Tide baseball team wasn't feeling the love from the weather gods, losing to Lancaster Mennonite, 15-1 in a game called after five innings because of the 10-run rule.

The lone highlight of the game for the Tide came in the fourth inning. With the Tide trailing13-0, Michaael Burke launched a fast ball toward the deepest part of the yard at Glatfelter Field and once it got over the head of the Mennonite centefielder,  Burke just sprinted around the bags, making it home well before the relay throw.

The Tide got off to a rough start. Mennonite's first two hitters had solid singles up the middle off Tide starter Chris Aruda. Following two sacrifices and another single, the Blazers, coached by former Tide coach Steve Robinson, had a 2-0 lead.

In the second, three walks and an infield hit made way for a bases clearing double for Mennonite early in the inning followed by another bases loaded hit later in the inning. At that point, Mennonite was blazing, leading 10-0.

With lefty Jimmy Lee now on the bump, Mennonite added two more runs in the third and a single run in the fourth before Burke has some fun running the bases.

Mennonite scored twice more in the fifth and finished the game with 13 hits and they also walked six times.