Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 | Box Score 3

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – In his first day competing for the Cornell baseball team, junior transfer Cole Rutherford hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning to lead the Big Red to a 7-5 victory over Northeastern in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader.
 
Northeastern won Saturday's opener, 6-0, then topped the Big Red in Sunday's morning's rubber game, 11-0, to conclude the three-game series at Chain of Lakes Park in the RussMatt Invitational.
 
Cornell returns to action with a three-game series at Wofford, starting with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday. The series finale is slated for noon Sunday.
 
Game 1: NORTHEASTERN 6, CORNELL 0 (Box Score)
Sophomore Dale Wickham was 2-for-4 with a double, but Huskies ace Aaron Civale gave the Big Red tough sledding in its first game of the season by working around four walks and five hits to toss seven scoreless innings.
 
Junior starter Paul Balestrieri struck out the side in the fifth inning with the Big Red trailing by just two. The first three Northeastern batters reached in the sixth, and an error and a passed ball helped the Huskies double their lead before sophomore Justin Lewis emerged from the bullpen and set down the next three batters. Northeastern's final two runs in the ninth were unearned.
 
The Big Red stranded 10 runners in the game — six in scoring position. Rutherford had a single and three walks in his four plate appearances.
                                 
Game 2: CORNELL 7, NORTHEASTERN 5 (Box Score)
Rutherford was 2-for-5 with a triple, a home run and four RBI, and junior Tommy Wagner had three of the Big Red's 12 hits.
 
Cornell attacked in the first inning, with junior Frankie Padulo and Wagner leading off with singles. Rutherford then tripled off the top of the wall in left-center to score them both, and Wickham followed with an RBI double to plate Rutherford and spot the Big Red a 3-0 lead before junior starter Michael Byrne even touched the mound.
 
Byrne made the lead stand up, yielding just an unearned run in 4 2/3 innings of work. Cornell tacked on runs in the fourth and fifth innings, spurred by leadoff singles by sophomore Ellis Bitar and Padulo.
 
The Huskies tied the game with two runs in the eighth and had runners on the corners when Lewis came on in relief. After a walk loaded the bases, the Big Red escaped the jam when a would-be wild pitch was flagged down by junior catcher C.J. Price and flipped to Lewis covering home to cut down the runner from third trying to score.
 
That set the stage for Rutherford's dramatic two-out homer in the ninth. Wagner was the runner on base after his third single of the afternoon. Lewis then set down Northeastern 1-2-3 in the ninth to earn the victory.
 
Game 3: NORTHEASTERN 11, CORNELL 0 (Box Score)
Six walks and three errors doomed the Big Red in a game which was halted in the seventh inning due to the tournament's mercy rule. Northeastern jumped out to a four-run lead in the third, then broke the game open with a seven-run fifth.
 
Senior Jordan Winawer had two singles, and Wagner and Wickham had the Big Red's other base hits. Northeastern's James Mulry earned the win with six scoreless innings and no walks.