NEW YORK – The baseball team pounded out 33 hits on Saturday to sweep a doubleheader against Columbia and start off the Lou Gehrig Division portion of the Ivy League schedule with victories of 8-7 and 12-6 on the surface of Robertson Field at Satow Stadium.
Cornell (16-11, 5-5 Ivy League) never trailed in either game, posting crooked numbers in the top of the first inning on both sides of the twin bill to take control. Starting pitchers
Tim Willittes and
Justin Lewis earned the victories and four bullpen arms soaked up 6 1/3 innings while surrendering just one earned run.
The Big Red used identical lineups for the games, and all nine starting batters had multiple hits on the day. Junior Kyle Gallagher was 5-for-7 with a pair of doubles and four RBI. Junior
Pierre Le Dorze had three doubles among his five hits and scored five runs. Senior
Cole Rutherford hit his team-leading fifth home run of the season to straightaway center field in the night cap.
The teams will conclude the four-game series with another doubleheader at noon Sunday in New York.
Game 1: CORNELL 8, COLUMBIA 7 (Box Score)
Gallagher was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI, leading six batters with multiple hits The Big Red battered Columbia's ace with three runs on five hits — all singles — in the first inning. Junior Ryan Krainz then dropped down a bunt for a base hit with one out in the second, then junior
Trey Baur hit an RBI double and senior
Tommy Wagner stroked an RBI triple to give Cornell a big 5-0 lead against a Lions pitcher that brandished a sub-2.00 ERA entering the game.
Willittes earned the victory to improve to 4-1 on the season, finding a way to get the big out when needed to escape jams. Columbia scored its first run in the second and loaded the bases, but Willittes ended the threat by inducing an inning-ending double play. A couple walks helped the Lions plate three more with two out in the third, but Willittes stranded the tying run at second by getting a groundout.
The Big Red's three-run fifth inning provided some more breathing room — all of which, it turned out, was needed. Le Dorze led off with a double, then scored on a two-out double to right by Gallagher. Cornell then caught a break when a dribbler was bobbled the first baseman and prolonged the inning, allowing senior
Frankie Padulo to drive a two-run double to center and give Cornell an 8-4 lead.
Columbia cut its deficit in half with a two-run homer in the fifth, then senior Matt Horton came on to record four outs and hand the ball over to senior closer
Peter Lannoo. The Lions scraped out a couple base hits in the seventh to pull within one and get the tying run on base, but Lannoo struck out the final batter on three pitches to move into a tie for Ivy League lead with seven saves on the season.
The victory was the 250th in the career of
Dan Pepicelli, the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball.
Game 2: CORNELL 12, COLUMBIA 6 (Box Score)
Just as the Big Red did in the first game, it started the second game with four straight base hits. An infield single from Wagner loaded the bases, then Le Dorze's double off the wall in left cleared them. He was 3-for-4, as all eight batters who played all nine innings had multiple hits.
Cornell kept the pressure on with four more runs in the second, the first three of which came on Rutherford's home run with two out. By the third, the Big Red knocked Columbia's starter out of the game and burned 6 2/3 innings of the home side's bullpen.
Armed with the big lead, Lewis kept Cornell in the lead while battling through five innings to improve to 2-2 on the year. His seven strikeouts were the most he's had in a start since the 10 he racked up in his season debut on March 4.
Freshman Jeb Bemiss and senior
Jamie Flynn split the final four innings, yielding just two unearned runs. Flynn has now worked 14 2/3 innings in nine relief appearances this season without surrendering an earned run.
