PHILADELPHIA — The baseball team's Ivy League hopes took a hit on Saturday when it suffered a pair of losses to Penn. The Big Red took a lead in the 10th inning of the first game — which was scheduled for seven innings — but the Quakers tied the game with back-to-back doubles and eventually won, 3-2, on a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded. Penn then won the finale, 16-5.
 
Cornell (13-19, 6-10 Ivy League) switches gears for a non-league doubleheader on Tuesday at Canisius before concluding the Ivy portion of its schedule with four games against Lou Gehrig Division-leading Princeton — starting with a noon Friday doubleheader at Hoy Field in Ithaca, N.Y.
 
The only way the Big Red can win the division is if all four teams finish 10-10, followed by wins in the ensuing playoff games. To set up that scenario, Cornell would need to sweep the four-game series against Princeton next weekend, and Columbia would need to win three of four games against Penn.
 
Game 1: PENN 3, CORNELL 2 (10 inn.) (Box Score)
Junior Cole Rutherford blasted his team-leading sixth home run of the season to left field in the top of the second inning to tie the score at 1, then the teams engaged in a pitchers' duel into extra innings.
 
For the Big Red, junior starter Justin Lewis went six innings while surrendering just one run in the first inning and a walk. Junior Rob Pannullo then worked three innings of scoreless relief, keeping the game alive by stranding runners at second and third when he pounced off the mound to retire a Penn batter on a swinging bunt to end the ninth.
 
Penn starter Mike Reitcheck worked nine innings, but Cornell went to work against oft-used reliever Mitch Holtz in the 10th. Hitting from the nine hole, freshman Parker Morris led off with a double to left. Sophomore Ellis Bitar and junior C.J. Price were then hit by consecutive pitches to load the bases. Freshman Mark Fraser followed with a base hit into left field, scoring Morris to give Cornell a 2-1 lead with no outs in the bases still full in the 10th.
 
But the Big Red failed to tack on additional runs, and it proved costly in the bottom half of the frame. Penn hit back-to-back doubles to tie the game, then a wild pitch and a walk put runners on the corners — and the winning run to third — with no outs.
 
Cornell turned to junior reliever Jamie Flynn for the near-impossible scenario. He induced weak contact for the first out, then intentionally walked the next batter to load the bases. With three lethal off-speed pitches, Flynn got a swinging strikeout for the second out. But an 0-1 pitch skimmed Penn's Chris Rabasco to drive in the winning run.
 
Both of the Big Red's two-hit games came from freshman — Josh Arndt and Morris.
 
Game 2: PENN 16, CORNELL 5 (Box Score)
Bitar led off the game with a home run to left field, but the Quakers answered with four runs in both the first and second innings to take a strangle-hold of the game.
 
Cornell fought back with three runs in the third to cut the deficit to 8-4, but the game would get no closer from there. Senior Jordan Winawer led off with a triple, then scored on the third of three straight walks to senior Eliot Lowell, Bitar and Price. Fraser then drove in Lowell with a sacrifice fly, and Rutherford plated Price with an RBI groundout.
 
Penn racked up 19 hits against six Cornell pitchers, led by Matt Tola's 4-for-5 performance with two doubles and five RBIs. Sophomore Dale Wickham scored the Big Red's final run after being hit by a pitch, advancing to second on a wild pitch, then coming plateward on Arndt's single to left.