Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Despite a pair of home runs from Brian Billigen and another three hits from Mickey Brodsky, the Cornell baseball team fell to James Madison, 13-12, in a non-league baseball contest on Wednesday afternoon. Billigen led all players with five runs driven in on the day, as he clubbed his second and third home runs of the year.

Mike Carroll took the loss in relief for the Big Red, as five different pitchers saw at least one inning of work on the day. Mike Kazley got the start and went the first inning an two-thirds, allowing just one earned run. Joe Sinopoli came on in relief and worked an inning and a third, allowing two earned runs on just one hit, but hitting three batters. Carroll worked an inning and two-thirds, surrendering three earned runs with one strikeout, before Daniel Filous came on for his first action, allowing three runs in one inning. Connor Kaufmann worked the final two and a third innings, striking out three while keeping the Dukes off the scoreboard.

Offensively, both Brodsky and Billigen went 3-for-6 on the day, with Billigen scoring twice and driving in five. Mike Lopez and Tom D'Alessandro both drove in a pair of runs on the afternoon, with D'Alessandro and Ben Swinford both scoring three runs.

Cornell (1-11) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, with Swinford and Ryan Plantier leading off the inning with singles. Marshall Yanzick drove in Swinford with a single of his own, and D'Alessandro drove in Plantier from third with a sacrifice fly as the Big Red offense got going.

James Madison (17-5) took the lead by scoring once in the second and two more times in the third, before the Big Red took the lead with four runs in the fourth. Swinford led off the inning with a double to left-center, then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Plantier's RBI groundout. D'Alessandro reached on a fielder's choice after Yanzick singled, and came around to score on Lopez's double to left. Lopez then scored when Billigen hit his first home run of the day over the wall in left-center, staking Cornell to a 6-4 lead.

The Dukes cut into the deficit with one run in the bottom half of the fourth before Cornell tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Swinford and Plantier both walked to lead off the frame, moving up on a sacrifce bunt. Swinford then scored on D'Alessandro's single to left, and Plantier came home on a sacrifice fly by Lopez, putting Cornell ahead by an 8-5 margin.

James Madison again responded, taking the lead with five runs in the bottom of the fifth, to move the score to 10-8 in favor of the Dukes. Cornell got a run back in the sixth, as Frank Hager led off with a double to center and came home on Swinford's two-out double to center, but James Madison would push the lead to 13-9 with three more runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Cornell cut into the deficit with another two runs in the seventh, as D'Alessandro walked and came around on Billigen's second home run of the day, a two-out shot to right center. Billigen would drive home D'Alessandro in the top of the ninth with a two-out double to left-center, but Brodsky struck out swinging to end the rally and the contest.

Cornell will try to get on the winning side on the spring trip when it opens up a three-game set against Appalachain State on Thursday in Boone, N.C. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.