Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Junior Brent Jones tossed a complete-game four-hitter in the opener, and senior Chris Cruz had a pair of pivotal late-inning hits to help the baseball team sweep Brown on Saturday, 4-1 and 6-5, in their Ivy League doubleheader at Murray Stadium.
 
Cruz broke a 1-all tie in the seventh inning of the opener with a two-run double, then he mashed a home run to spur the Big Red's rally in Game 2. Cornell (13-11, 5-3 Ivy League) is back in action at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Binghamton, continuing its stretch of 11 consecutive road games.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 4, BROWN 1 | Box Score
Jones tossed a complete-game four-hitter in a classic pitchers' duel. The game was scoreless through six innings, with Jones and Brown starter Dave St. Lawrence mowing through each other's lineups.
 
Senior Tom D'Alessandro then led off the final inning with a double to left field. Junior Ryan Karl and senior Ryan Plantier earned walks around a balk, loading the bases with no outs. That brought Cruz to the plate, and the slugger belted a double to bring home Karl and D'Alessandro to break the scoreless tie.
 
Junior Spencer Scorza followed with a sacrifice fly to center, allowing Plantier to score. A couple of errors with two out then brought Cruz home to give the visitors a 4-0 lead.
 
With Cornell playing its seventh of eight games in a span of six days, Jones gave the bullpen a break by finishing off the game. Brown was able to push across an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh, but Jones induced a popout to end the game shortly thereafter to wrap it up.
 
Jones surrendered just the four hits and one unearned run while striking out seven without issuing a walk. He retired the first eight batters of the game, then worked out of perhaps his biggest jam in the third. A pair of two-out singles gave Brown its first baserunners of the contest, but Jones got a flyout to end the threat. It was the last Bears runner to reach second base until the seventh inning. He improved to 2-1 on the season.
 
Game 2: CORNELL 6, BROWN 5 | Box Score
The Big Red scored three runs in the eighth inning against the Bears' bullpen to erase a one-run deficit, and freshman Paul Balestrieri was fantastic in long relief to earn the victory. He surrendered no runs and just two hits in five innings of work with no walks and five strikeouts to earn his first collegiate victory.
 
With the Big Red trailing 4-3, Cruz led off the eigthth with his fifth home run of the season and program-record 24th of his collegiate career, tying the score at 4. Scorza followed with a single before departing in favor of pinch runner Dan Morris. Tatum then punched a single to left and Swinford reached on a bunt to load the bases. That set the stage for junior JD Whetsel to pull a two-run double to left field and give the Big Red a 6-4 lead.
 
Cornell started the scoring in the first inning. Karl drew a two-out walk, then stole second base and came around to score on Plantier's double to right.
 
Brown took a 3-1 lead into the fourth inning,  but Cornell cut its deficit to one run when Cruz doubled and later scored on junior Kevin Tatum's RBI single in the top of the fourth.
 
After the Bears answered back with a run of their own in the bottom of the frame, the Big Red plated another run in the top of the fifth. Whetsel was hit by a pitch one out, then stole second base before advancing to third with one out. Plantier drove in Whetsel with a two-out single to left.
 
Leading 6-4 heading into the ninth, Brown was able to muster one run before sophomore Matt Horton locked down the save with the potential tying run on second and winning run on first.