Box Score (PDF)

ITHACA, N.Y. – Sophomore Will Simoneit hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning, and the baseball team scored five unanswered runs to surge past Binghamton for a 6-4 victory on Wednesday at Hoy Field. With the win, Cornell (14-11) has already matched its win total from last season despite having played 13 fewer games to this point.
 
Senior Matt Horton earned the victory by pitching a quiet eighth inning, and senior Peter Lannoo came on to breeze through the ninth for his sixth save of the year. The Big Red use seven pitchers in all, issuing zero walks for the third time over the last four games.
 
Binghamton (13-7) got two home runs in the first five innings, then Paul Rufo scored on a groundout after hitting a leadoff triple to give the Bearcats a 4-1 lead. Senior Cole Rutherford drove in junior Pierre Le Dorze for both of the Big Red's first two runs — the first on a base hit following a Le Dorze double in the fourth; the second on a groundout after a Le Dorze triple in the sixth.
 
Freshman Matt Collins then put a charge into Hoy Field by leading off the bottom of the seventh with a towering home run to left field. Making his first collegiate start, it was also Collins' first collegiate hit. Junior Ryan Krainz then hit a hustle double into the gap in left-center, and the Big Red employed solid small ball to bring him home. Senior Frankie Padulo advanced Krainz to third by pushing a two-strike grounder to the right side of the infield, then senior Tommy Wagner drove him in with a flyout to the outing portion of left field, and the game was tied at 4.
 
After Horton's uneventful eighth inning, Rutherford worked a leadoff walk in the eighth. That led to Simoneit's blast to left, marking his fourth home run in just 33 at-bats this season.
 
Cornell returns to Ivy League action this weekend, when it starts Lou Gehrig Division play with a four-game series at Columbia. The set will feautre a pair of doubleheaders at noon on both Saturday and Sunday.