LEWISBURG, Pa. – The baseball team earned another series win this weekend, splitting a Sunday doubleheader with Bucknell to earn three victories over the four-game weekend set at Depew Field. The Big Red won Sunday's opener, 7-3, before coming up on the short end of a 1-0 pitchers' duel in the night cap.
 
Cornell (9-4) has now won all three of its true series to start the season, plus it took two of three games last weekend at Richmond's Spider Invitational.
 
The Big Red will play its final game before Ivy League competition starts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, when it visits Penn State.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 7, BUCKNELL 3 (Box Score)
The Bison pushed three runs across in the bottom of the fourth to pull ahead, but Cornell answered right back by scoring five in the top of the fifth to take a 6-3 lead.
 
The Big Red loaded the bases with no outs. Junior Dale Wickham and senior Cole Rutherford drew consecutive RBI walks to tie the game, then junior Trey Baur drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. Junior pinch-hitter Pierre Le Dorze then grounded into a fielder's choice, which drove in another run. Senior Frankie Padulo pushed Le Dorze to second, then Le Dorze scored on a two-out single to left by junior Ryan Krainz.
 
Bucknell led off the bottom of the fifth with a double, but senior Matt Horton came on in relief and slammed the door to earn the victory. He stranded his inherited runner and allowed no hits in his three innings of work. Junior Tommy Morris made his Big Red debut, fanning five in a four-inning start.
 
Padulo drove in the game's first run with a two-out single with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth, then capped the scoring with his first home run of the season in the top of the seventh.
 
Game 2: BUCKNELL 1, CORNELL 0 (Box Score)
The Big Red was held to three hits in a complete-game shutout for Bucknell's Mike Castellani.
 
Two of Cornell three singles came in the seventh inning, when junior Ellis Bitar led off with a base hit to center. Rutherford hit a two-out single through the right side of the infield. An error on a ball hit by Baur then loaded the bases, but Castellani escaped the jam with a groundout.
 
The Bison then took the lead for good with a two-out home run from Keifer Rawlings in the bottom of the seventh.
 
It was the only blemish in another terrific start for senior Paul Balestrieri, the reigining Ivy League Pitcher of the Week. He yielded just the one run in seven innings of work with five strikeouts. He stranded two runners in scoring position in the first, then Bucknell had just two baserunners (a walk and single) over the next five innings before Rawlings' homer.