ITHACA, N.Y. -- With few preseason game to gauge from and a young squad up and down the lineup, the Cornell softball team has been looking for the right combination right up to the start of Ivy League play. It may have found some answers on Sunday afternoon as the Big Red split a doubleheader against conference rival Yale, dropping the opener 11-4 before exploding for an 11-3 win in six innings in the nightcap.

Cornell pounded out 18 hits, tied for the fourth-most in a game in school history, with eight players registering multi-hit days and all nine either scoring or driving in a run (seven did both) in the Big Red's first run-rule win over an Ivy League foe since topping Penn 9-0 last April in Philadelphia. The win helped soothe the pain of its 11-4 loss in game one.

Junior Emily Weinberg was 4-for-8 with a home run, three runs scored and three RBI, while freshman Tori Togashi was 4-for-6 with a double, a homer and three RBI. Freshman Karlie Mellott had three hits in the two contests and extended her hit streak to 13 games to begin her career.

Game One
Yale exploded for eight runs in the sixth inning to blow open a close pitcher's duel, and though the Big Red got its bats going late, they couldn't match the Bulldogs' monster inning. 

Weinberg was 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI, while  Togashi hit her first career home run. Leanne Iannucci also smoked a pair of base hits, including a double, and Mellott extended her hitting streak to 12 games in the seventh.

Camille Weisenbach was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBI to lead a Yale team that had nine hits in the win. Laina Do also had a pair of hits and she and Sydney Glover each had a pair of RBI in support of Francesca Casalino, who earned the complete game win. She scattered eight hits and struck out seven to improve to 3-2 on the year.

Freshman Maddie Orcutt took the loss in the circle, though just five of the 11 runs credited to her were charged as earned.

With Yale clinging to a 2-0 lead, the Bulldogs all but shut the door in the sixth. The big blow came with a three-run double off the bat of Weisenbach.

Cornell scored three in the sixth and one in the seventh, but it was too little, too late for the home team. Togashi homered in the bottom half of the inning after Weinberg led off the frame with a solo shot. The junior added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to cap the scoring,

Game Two
Cornell raced out to a 4-0 lead after two innings, pounded out a season-high 18 hits and turned the tide on the Bulldogs in the nightcap, getting a strong outing in the circle from Meg Parker enroute to the dominant win.

Not only did the Big Red hitters reach safely often, they also hit the ball hard. Cornell hit six doubles, the fourth-most in a game in school history, and recorded 27 total bases. Taylor Goodin was 3-for-4 with a double and a home run, as eight different players had multi-hit games. 

Parker, who was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored at the plate, scattered six hits and surrendered three runs in her five innings of work. Freshman Sierra Stone pitched a hitless sixth.

Sophomore Jessica Bigbie's two-run, ground-rule double in the first made it 2-0, and the Big Red doubled the lead in the second on RBI singles by freshman  Rebecca Kubena and Togashi. After Yale got on the board in the third, Cornell responded with a three-run fourth. Sophie Giaquinto drove in two with a single and Taylor Goodin plated another with a base hit.

Cornell's run in the fifth on a Michiko McGivney double put Cornell up 8-1, and after Yale scored two in the sixth, the Big Red ended the game early by scoring three runs with two outs. Goodin homered, Kubena doubled and Mellott scored her with a double of her own. Weinberg ended the contest with a run-scoring single.