Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team closed out its four-game set against Columbia with a sweep over the Lions on Sunday afternoon in New York City. Cornell needed extra innings in the opener to collect the 3-2 win before rallying for a 9-7 win in game two.

By taking three of the four games over the weekend against Columbia, Cornell moved to 8-8 in Ivy League play and 12-18 overall. The Big Red is now in a tie for first place in the Ivy League Gehrig Division with Princeton, which took three of four from Penn over the weekend. Cornell and Princeton will play a four-game, home-and-home series next weekend, opening on Friday at Princeton, N.J., before wrapping up the season on Sunday at Hoy Field in Ithaca.

Junior Matt Langseth was 4-for-8 on the day for the Big Red, scoring twice and driving in a run. Freshman Brian Billigen was 3-for-7 with two runs, two RBI and a pair of walks. Senior Nathan Ford and sophomore Mickey Brodsky both had three hits on the day, with both hitting a home run and driving in three runs.

On the mound, Cornell got quality starts from Brodsky and junior Tony Bertucci. Brodsky started the opener and went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and a pair of walks. Bertucci started game two, working 4.2 innings and allowing four runs on six hits while walking three. Cornell also had solid relief work, with Stephen Osterer and Taylor Wood both collecting a win out of the bullpen. David Rochefort also was excellent on the day, working 2.1 innings over the two games, earning the save in both contests.

In game one, Cornell got on the board in the third inning, with Langseth leading off the inning with a double. He moved to third on a bunt by Billigen, then scored when Scott Hardinger's fly to right was dropped. Cornell made the score 2-0 in the fourth inning when Nate David singled, moved to second on a single by Langseth and scored on Adam Jacobs' single to left.

A two-run home run in the fifth by Colubia's Nick Cox knotted the score at two, where it would remain through the end of the seven scheduled innings. In the eighth, Cornell got a leadoff single by Brodsky, who was then lifted for Casey Brett as a pinch runner. Frank Hager sacrificed Brett over to second, and he scored on Domenic Di Ricco's single to right.

With Cornell ahead by a run in the bottom of the eight, Rochefort came on to close out the contest, and did so by allowing a leadoff single, but then fanning the next three batters on swinging strikeouts, including the last two on 3-2 counts.

Osterer got the win in the opener, working 1.2 innings of relief, allowing just one walk while striking out one.

While game one was a pitcher's duel, game two started off as a slugfest, with both starting pitchers gone before the seventh inning. Columbia drew first blood, scoring twice in the bottom of the first off Cornell starter Tony Bertucci, but the offense rebounded in the second to score a pair of unearned runs. Two errors in the inning, along with a pair of singles, scored Hager and Di Ricco, as Cornell knotted the game at two. In the third, Brodsky hit a home run to left-center, scoring himself and Ford, as Cornell took a 4-2 lead.

Columbia scored twice in the fifth inning, chasing Bertucci from the game as the Lions tied the game at four. A walk, single, and a hit batsman loaded the bases before Bertucci induced a ground ball double play. A single up the middle scored the tying run, as Bertucci was lifted in favor of Taylor Wood, who got a ground out to get out of the inning.

The Lions scored once more in the sixth, as a leadoff triple came around to score and give Columbia a 5-4 lead. That lasted just the rest of the half-inning, as Cornell's offense exploded for four runs in the top of the seventh. Billigen drove in Langseth on a fielder's choice before Ford hit a three-run bomb to left to give the Big Red some breathing room.

Columbia scored twice more in the eighth, hitting a two-run home run off Mike Carroll, but Rochefort came on to get the final out of the eighth and then, after allowing a leadoff walk in the ninth, got another two swinging strikeouts for his second save of the day.

Wood worked 2.1 innings of relief for the win, allowing two earned runs on five hits.

Before Cornell and Princeton meet next weekend to settle the Ivy League Gehrig Division title, the Big Red will head to Albany on Wednesday for a doubleheader against Siena. First pitch of game one is slated for 2 p.m.