PHILADELPHIA – Connor Kaufmann pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout, and the baseball team used a four-hit first inning to plate all of its runs in a 3-0 victory over Penn on Saturday afternoon in the opener of a doubleheader at Mieklejohn Stadium. The Quakers answered with a 4-3 win in the nightcap to avoid getting swept in the four-game series.
 
With Columbia sweeping Princeton in the Lou Gehrig Division's other Saturday doubleheader, Cornell (27-11-1, 13-3 Ivy League) has opened up a three-game lead for the division lead over the Tigers. That means the Big Red will need to win just one of next weekend's four games against Princeton to clinch its second division title since baseball was added to the Ivy League umbrella in 1993.
 
The Big Red also maintains a two-game lead over Red Rolfe Division-leading Dartmouth (11-5 Ivy) in the leaguewide race. The division winner with the best overall Ivy record will host the three-game championship series, scheduled for May 5-6. Cornell also only the tiebreaker against the Big Green, having swept the season series, so one more win would also clinch home-field advantage in the Ivy championship series for the Big Red.
 
Game 1 – Cornell 3, Penn 0 – Box Score
The only offense came early, with all three runs scoring with two out in the first inning. Frank Hager came to the plate with Marshall Yanzick on third and Brian Billigen on second. A wild pitch allowed Yanzick to score the first run, then Billigen came home when Hager smacked a double to left-center. Hager then scored the third run on an RBI single by Brandon Lee, who was 3-for-3.
 
The Big Red had 10 hits in the game, with seven of the nine starting hitters swatting at least one base hit. Yanzick was the only other player with mutiple hits, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.
 
Kaufmann took care of the rest. Just one Penn runner reached second base in the game, but Kaufmann got the next batter to ground into an inning-ending double play. Kaufmann then retired the final 10 batters of the game, striking out the side in the seventh to ramp up his strikeout total to six. He surrendered just three hits and issued one walk, which led off the first inning.
 
It's Kaufmann's second shutout of the season, with the first coming on April 1 in a no-hitter against Dartmouth. In four Ivy League starts, Kaufmann is 3-0 with a 0.66 earned-run average and 16 strikeouts.
 
Game 2 – Penn 4, Cornell 3 – Box Score
The Big Red rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game with a three-run sixth inning. Billigen was hit by a pitch leading off, then advanced to third on a double down the left-field line by Hager. Both runners came around to score on an error that allowed Lee to reach first base. Tom D'Alessandro's single was sandwiched around the side's first two outs, then Ben Swinford drove in the tying run with a single to left. D'Alessandro had two of the Big Red's five hits in the game.
 
Penn then pulled ahead with an unearned run in the seventh. The Big Red bullpen tandem of Nick Busto and Houston Hawley worked 3 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run.
 
The Big Red has one more non-league game on the docket, at 4 p.m. Tuesday vs. visiting Binghamton, before it attempts to clinch the Gehrig Division title on Friday in a noon doubleheader against visiting Princeton on Senior Day at Hoy Field.