PRINCETON, N.J. — The baseball team sent out its senior class in style on Sunday, sweeping Princeton in a doubleheader at Hoy Field by scores of 10-0 and 2-1 at Hoy Field.
 
Senior Spencer Scorza was 4-for-4 in the opener, then drove in one of the Big Red's two runs in the first inning of the second game. Senior Brian McAfee tossed a four-hit shutout in Game 1 for his team-leading fourth complete game of the season.
 
Cornell (12-26, 9-11 Ivy League) finished in third place in the league's Lou Gehrig Division for a second straight year. Cornell has finished last in the division just once in seven years under guidance of Bill Walkenbach, the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball.
 
There was a special ceremony between the games to honor the last several home games for the team's 13 seniors. The Big Red closes out the season at 2 p.m. Wednesday with a non-league doubleheader against Canisius at Hoy Field.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 10, PRINCETON 0 (Box Score)
Scorza was 4-for-4 with two doubles, and sophomore Tommy Wagner drove in the first four runs of the game. That was more than enough for McAfee to work with, as he tossed a four-hit shutout in his final collegiate start at Cornell.
 
McAfee only issued one walk, and his first three-ball count didn't occur until the third inning when Paul Tupper worked a full count, only to have McAfee induce a third strike with an off-speed pitch over the inside corner. McAfee then made an outstanding defensive play on the next batter, springing off the mound to his right to barehand weak contact from Tyler Servais, then firing to first base to record the out.
 
Wagner's first hit was a triple to score senior Dan Morris and Scorza in the first. The same part of the lineup produced again in the third. Senior Kevin Tatum drew a two-out walk, then Scorza rocketed a double off the base of the right-field wall. That set the table for Wagner again, and he delivered with a single into center field that drove in two more runs.
 
The most trouble McAfee got into came in the fourth, when Princeton put two runners on with one out. But he got a groundball to sophomore shortstop Frankie Padulo for the first out, then got Peter Owens to strike out swinging for the third out.
 
The Big Red played incredible defense in the game, including a diving catch into the left-center field gap by JD Whetsel in the fifth inning.
 
Cornell blew the game open with six runs in the sixth, and McAfee capped off his fourth complete game of the season with 66 strikes among his 93 pitches. Tatum and Karl were both 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Senior catcher Matt Hall was also 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored.
 
Game 2: CORNELL 2, PRINCETON 1 (Box Score)
Senior Eric Upton earned the victory with five nearly flawless innings of relief in which he surrendered no runs and no walks while fanning three and scattering three hits. Junior Michael Byrne, making a rare appearance in relief, earned his first save of the season by overpowering the Tigers for the final two innings.
 
Princeton (7-32, 4-16) took an early lead when Danny Hoy wrapped a homer around the left-field foul pole in the first inning for the team's only run of the day. But Cornell answered immediately with two runs in the bottom half of the frame.
 
With two on and one out, Scorza shot a single through the right side of the infield. Head coach Bill Walkenbach aggressively waved Whetsel around third, and he scored the tying run when the throw home was cut off. Wagner was hit by a pitch in the next at-bat to load the bases. That brought Karl to the plate, and he plated Morris for the go-ahead run by beating out a potential double-play ball to the second baseman.
 
Princeton had a couple of threats that Cornell averted. The first came in the second inning with runners on second and third and one out. A groundball to third base was fielded cleanly by Tatum, who alertly came home with the throw and the lead runner was eventually retired when freshman catcher Ellis Bitar fired back to third base in time for Tatum to apply the tag to the retreating runner. Senior starter Zach McCulley then got a flyout to right field for the third out.
 
The Tigers then had runners on the corners with one out in seventh — Upton's final inning of work. Upton induced a flyout from to left that wasn't deep enough to allow the runner on third to score, then he ended the threat by inducing a grounder to short.
 
Freshman Dale Wickham had the Big Red's lone extra-base hit in the form of his first collegiate double.