WASHINGTON — The baseball team won its second straight series to start the season, splitting a doubleheader with George Washington on Sunday to take three of four games over the weekend. Sophomore Chris Cruz had two home runs and five RBI from the cleanup spot in the 4-3 loss and 12-3 victory.
 
Senior Marshall Yanzick was 3-for-8 on the day, extending his hit streak to 13 games. Freshman righty Brian McAfee fanned 10 without issuing a walk in 5 1/3 innings in the opening, earning a no decision. Senior righty Rick Marks then took to the hill in the nightcap and improved to 2-0.
 
GAME 1 (George Washington 4, Cornell 3) – Box Score
The Colonials scored their runs in innings 6-8, then induced a game-ending strikeout with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. The Big Red stranded 15 runners on base.
 
Cruz drove in the first two runs of the game with a sacrifice fly to plate Brenton Peters in the first inning and a two-out home run in the third. McAfee had all 10 of his strikeouts in five shutout innings before running into trouble in the sixth. A lead-off double turned into GW's first run on a single by Brett Bowers, which is when McAfee was removed. Bowers then stole second and scored on a two-out single down the left-field line by Brookes Townsend, tying the game at 2.
 
The Colonials led off the seventh with another double, moved the runner to third on a sacrifice bunt and drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left. GW then tacked on an insurance run in the eighth. Ryan Hickey doubled, then stole third and scored a throwing error.
 
The run proved pivotal with Cornell storming back in the ninth. Senior Frank Hager wrapped up his 3-for-4 game with a one-out single through the left side, then a Brandon Lee single after a strikeout gave the Big Red runners on the corners with two out. Sophomore Ben Swinford delivered with a double to right that scored Hager and advanced pinch runner Jimmy Sikorski to third. But that was as close as Cornell would get in its first loss of the season.
 
GAME 2 (Cornell 12, George Washington 3) – Box Score
Five members of the Big Red had multiple hits, chasing the Colonials' starter in the second inning. Peters reached base and scored four times, and Brian Billigen and Cruz had home runs. Cruz's second home run of the day and fourth of the season was of the two-run variety in the top of the first. The sophomore has already surpassed his home run total from last season.
 
Cornell extended its lead with a two-run single from Yanzick in the second, then he scored on a double steal to push the advantage to 5-0. Chris Burke plated the Big Red's sixth run with an RBI groundout in the third, and the lead ballooned to 8-0 with two more runs in the fourth.
 
GW (3-11) broke through for three runs in the fourth – the only chink in the armor for Marks, who fanned six in his six innings of work. He recovered to set down the Colonials in order in both the fifth and sixth innings.
 
By that point, the Big Red added to its lead when Peters scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth. Billigen then capped the weekend's offense with a three-run homer to right in the seventh. It was his third home run of the season and pushed his team-leading RBI total to 15 after just eight games.
 
Cornell (7-1) returns home for the week before kicking off a 10-game Spring Break road trip with a pair of doubleheaders March 17-18 at Delaware State.