Schott’s blast leads Columbia past Gonzaga 8-2 in Blacksburg

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Hayden Schott belted a three-run home run in a five-run fifth inning and third-seeded Columbia thumped second-seeded Gonzaga 8-2 on Friday in the Blacksburg Regional.

Locked in a 1-1 tie, the Lions (31-16) had four straight hits, with an RBI single by Weston Eberly preceding Schott’s blast, his 12th, to right field off of Bulldogs starter Gabe Hughes (8-3). Joshua Solomon had an RBI single after EJ Kreutzmann’s double to make it 6-1.

Columbia matches up with the winner of Wright State-Virginia Tech, the fourth overall tournament seed, on Saturday after Gonzaga meets the loser.

Sean Higgins (6-3) started for Columbia and gave up two runs, just Tyler Rando’s fifth-inning home run was earned, on six hits with six strikeouts. Saajan May threw one-hit ball over the final three innings for his second save.

Eberly and Tyler MacGregor both had three hits; Eberly and Schott both had three RBIs, Eberly had a solo home run in the seventh.

Connor Coballes had three hits for the Bulldogs (36-18).

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