PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — The baseball team recorded its second doubleheader sweep of the weekend against Maryland-Eastern Shore, holding on for a 7-5 victory in Sunday's opener before cruising to a 13-0 win in the nightcap. It's the Big Red's first 4-0 start since 1981.
 
Senior Brian Billigen was 4-for-5 in the second game, pushing his RBI total on the weekend to 10. Sophomore Chris Cruz had a pair of hits in each game from the cleanup spot to push his totals on the weekend to 8-for-17 with a pair of doubles and two home runs. Cornell has six players hitting .400 or better – Billigen, Cruz, junior Brenton Peters, senior Frank Hager, senior Brandon Lee and freshman Kevin Tatum.
 
Making his first collegiate start, freshman Brian McAfee earned the victory in Game 1 with five innings of work. Senior Rick Marks followed up with a five shutout innings of two-hit work in the second game. UMES fell to 0-11 on the season.
 
GAME 1 (Cornell 7, UMES 5) —  Box Score 
For the third straight game, the Big Red plated multiple runs before its opposition even picked up a bat. With two outs, Tatum singled through the right side to score Billigen and senior Marshall Yanzick. Freshman Matt Hall followed with a double that plated Tatum to spot the visitors a 3-0 lead by the middle of the first.
 
McAfee set UMES down in order in the first, then worked around trouble in the second with runners on first and second with no outs. The Hawks finally broke through in the fourth inning with four runs on five hits to take its only lead of the four-game set against the Big Red – but it turned out to be short-lived.
 
Cornell jumped back ahead, 5-4, in the top of the fifth when Hager doubled down the left-field line to score Tatum, then scored on Lee's two-bagger to left. McAfee got through his fifth and final inning unscathed to put himself in line for the victory, then watched his teammates expand the Cornell lead to 7-4 in the top of the sixth on a pair of unearned runs. Billigen led off with a single, then went first to third on Cruz's single. A botched pickoff attempt allowed Billigen to score and Cruz to move to second. Cruz then scored on an error on an attempted double play. UMES had six errors in the game.
 
The Big Red bullpen took care of the rest, surrendering just two hits and an unearned run over the final four frames. Freshman Roberto Suppa tossed a pair of scoreless innings in his collegiate debut, then junior Houston Hawley worked around a leadoff walk in the eighth.
 
UMES had one last surge in the ninth, fueled by the leadoff batter reaching on an error. The next hitter doubled to put a pair of runners in scoring position with no outs, but freshman Kellen Urbon induced three consecutive groundouts to quell the threat and nail down a save in his first collegiate appearance.
 
GAME 2 (Cornell 12, UMES 0; seven innings) — Box Score
Marks was near flawless in his season debut, yielding just a pair of hits and one walk in five innings. Freshman Jimmy Sikorski worked a scoreless sixth inning in his first collegiate appearance, then Hawley cleaned up the final inning in a non-save situation. The Hawks had just two runners in scoring position for the whole game.
 
Meanwhile, Cornell's offense pounded out 15 hits and batted around in a pair of six-run innings. Hall hit a two-run triple to right with two outs in the third, then scored on Hager's triple to left-center. Hager was 3-for-3 with two runs scored. Billigen was a triple shy of the cycle with four RBIs, including a three-run homer to center field in the fifth.
 
The Big Red hits the road again next weekend for another pair of doubleheaders against George Washington on Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11.