PRINCETON, N.J. – Junior Ryan Plantier hit his third home run of the season, senior Spenser Souza drove in three runs and the pitchers were stellar again in the baseball team's Friday sweep of Princeton, 4-2 and 2-1.
 
As the Big Red celebrated in the moments after Friday's games, its postseason hopes were still alive. Columbia won the first game of its Friday doubleheader against Penn on a walk-off homer. The Quakers would have to win Friday's nightcap, both games against the Lions on Saturday, and the Big Red would have to sweep Princeton in Sunday's doubleheader at Hoy Field in Ithaca, N.Y. — all just to create a one-game tiebreaker for the Gehrig Division title between Cornell and Columbia.
 
Game 1 — Cornell 4, Princeton 2 — Box Score
All of the Big Red's runs and four of its seven hits came in the third inning, capped by Souza's first hit since an injury kept him on the shelf for the last four weeks. He was 2-for-3 with a pivotal two-run single. Sophomore Nick Busto earned the victory with 5.2 innings of work, then classmate Eric Upton got the last four outs to record his third save of the season.
 
Alec Keller led off with a hit for Princeton, but was instantly erased on a groundball double play to set down the side in order in the first inning. The Big Red then turned a more unconventional double play to end the second inning, with right fielder Chris Cruz flagging down a flyout before firing the ball to first base to double off Alex Flink, who reached on a fielder's choice one batter earlier.
 
That set the stage for Cornell to storm to the lead with a four-run third. Plantier led off with a solo home run to left, his second home run of the week and third of the season — which ties Cruz for the team lead. The rest of the damage came with two outs. Cruz's singled with runners at the corners to score Whetsel, who earlier singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Tom D'Alessandro drew a walk to load the bases, setting the stage for Souza to smack a single up the middle and score Matt Hall and Cruz.
 
Princeton was then able to put two runners on base in the third, but Busto struck out Danny Hoy to retire the side. The Tigers then loaded the bases with two out in the fourth, but Busto escaped again by getting Tyler Servais to fly out to left.
 
The Tigers finally broke Busto's shutout bid in the sixth. A Flink double pushed runners to second and third with one out. Busto then appeared to get a key out with a fly ball to left field that wasn't deep enough to allow the runner to score, but Billy Arendt followed with a two-out single to chase home Princeton's first run. With runners now on first and third, Upton came on in relief and induced an inning-ending pop out to second baseman Brenton Peters.
 
Princeton scored an unearned run in the seventh and brought the potential tying run to the plate in the form of cleanup hitter Steve Harrington, but Upton got him to ground out to Peters to end the game and bring the Big Red into sole position of second place in the Ivy League Lou Gehrig Division.
 
Game 2 — Cornell 2, Princeton 1 — Box Score
The Big Red offense had just two hits through six innings, but that was enough to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.
 
Cruz was the first to reach base on an error, then he moved up to second on a wild pitch and third on D'Alessandro's single to left. Souza then drove in his third run of the day with a ground ball to shortstop, allowing Cruz to cross the plate and put the Big Red on the board.
 
Peters then led off the sixth with his second triple of the season. Kevin Tatum then executed a safety squeeze with a bunt up the first baseline, scoring Peters to give the Big Red a 2-0 lead.
 
That insurance run came in handy, as Princeton answered in the bottom of the frame with its first run. Harrington hit a two-out double down the line in right, then scored on Flink's single to left. It was the only blemish on the day for freshman starter Michael Byrne, who surrendered just the one run while scattering five hits through six innings. The reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week fanned a career-high seven in his second league start.
 
Sophomore Brent Jones came out of the bullpen and worked a 1-2-3 seventh before back-to-back singles with one out in the eighth pushing the go-ahead run to first base for the Tigers. But Jones got Harrington to pop out to second, followed by a Flink groundout to retire the side.
 
The Big Red then got a runner to second base with less than two outs twice in the top of the ninth. Neither was able to advance any further, leaving the visitors' leading at one run with the Tigers facing their final at-bat.
 
Jones set the first two batters down, but then hit the next two to put the potential tying run on second and winning run on first. Cornell turned to freshman Matt Horton in a lefty-lefty matchup with Keller, getting Princeton's leading hitter to pop out to D'Alessandro in foul territory. It was Horton's third save of the season, tying him for the team with Upton — who had just saved his third a few hours earlier.
 
The Big Red and Tigers will meet again at noon Sunday in Cornell's Senior Day at Hoy Field.