GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Ivy League champion Columbia will face No. 3 seed Florida Atlantic (40-17-1, 13-9-1 C-USA) in an elimination bout at 1 p.m. Saturday after falling to No. 1 seed—and reigning national champion—Florida, 13-5, in the Gainesville Regional opener. 
 
The Lions held a 3-1 advantage through two innings and chased Gator freshman starter Tommy Mace in the third. Reliever Jordan Butler carried much of the load for Florida, allowing just one run and two hits over five innings in relief, to earn the victory. 

Florida hurler Mace retired the side in order in the top of the first, before a Nelson Maldonado walk and a Will Dalton RBI double off the wall in the left center got the Gators on the board in the bottom half.

Columbia got to Mace in the second, with the first four batters reaching base. Chandler Bengtson led off the inning with a double down the right field line, followed by a Joe Engel walk and back-to-back RBI singles from Matt Cerfolio and AJ DiFillipo to make it 2-1 in favor of the Lions. 

In the bottom half, Cerfolio made a heads up play at third base to keep the Lions on top, gunning down Blake Reese at the plate. 
 
Randell Kanemaru led off the third inning with the first home run of this year’s NCAA Baseball Regionals, clearing the bleachers in left center field. Back-to-back singles from Liam McGill and Bengtson chased Gator starter Mace. Columbia starter Harrisen Egly was also pulled in the bottom half, when Dalton pulled the Gators within one via an RBI single to left. 
 
Columbia reliever Ty Wiest got the Lions out of the third with a 3-2 advantage, before Florida broke the game open with six runs in the fourth. The fifth and sixth passed scoreless ahead of eventful seventh and eighth innings. 
 
The Lions plated one in both frames, but the Gators answered with two runs in bottom half of the seventh and three in the eighth—punctuated by two-run homers from Jonah Girand and Dalton—to produce the final margin. 
 
With the loss, Columbia falls to 4-11 all-time in NCAA Baseball Regionals, with this being the club’s sixth all-time appearance and fifth since 2008. The Lions will look to rebound in an elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday—live on ESPN3.