NEW YORK – The baseball team split a Sunday doubleheader at Columbia to take three of four games in the series and move into solo possession of second place in the Ivy League Lou Gehrig Division. The Big Red won the opener, 9-5, but a rally fell short in a 8-7 loss to close out the weekend.
 
Senior Cole Rutherford hit two home runs with five RBI in the first game, then added two more hits in the night cap. Senior Tommy Wagner had five hits on the day.
 
Cornell (17-12, 6-6 Ivy League) returns to non-league action at 3 p.m. Wednesday with a single nine-inning game against Canisius at Hoy Field before a pivotal four-game series against Penn next weekend in Ithaca.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 9, COLUMBIA 5 (Box Score)
The Big Red followed the recipe that worked so well in Saturday's victories, jumping on the Lions right out of the gates. Sophomore Will Simoneit hit a two-run double with the bases loaded in the first inning, then Rutherford's two-run home run over the tall fence in straightaway center field gave Cornell a 4-1 lead in the third.
 
Back-to-back triples by senior Frankie Padulo and junior Ryan Krainz gave Cornell a fifth run in the fourth, but Columbia answered back with a two-run homer in the fifth to cut the deficit to 5-4.
 
The Lions threatened to tie the game in the sixth after a leadoff fly-ball double eluded an outfielder on a blustery early afternoon, then that potential tying run moved up to third on a groundout to the right side of the infield.
 
Freshman Colby Wyatt was then summoned from the bullpen, extinguishing the threat by inducing a pair of groundouts to third base.
 
The Big Red tacked on four more runs in the seventh. Krainz led off with a double and scored on Wagner's base hit to center. After junior Pierre Le Dorze pulled a base hit through the left side of the infield, Rutherford cleared the bases with a three-run homer over the scoreboard in left-center.
 
The insurance turned out to be pivotal, with Columbia scored its fifth run on a one-out single followed by a double. The next batter was hit by a pitch to put the tying run on deck, but the Big Red turned to senior closer Peter Lannoo. It took him just two pitches to record the final outs, inducing a 4-6-3 double play for his Ivy League-leading eighth save of the season.
 
Game 2: COLUMBIA 8, CORNELL 7 (Box Score)
Through the first five innings, the Big Red committed four of its five errors and thrice grounded into inning-ending double plays with runners on third base.
 
Padulo hit a two-run single to center with two out in the sixth to cut the Big Red's deficit to 5-4, but the Lions plated three more in the sixth to take back control.
 
Rutherford drove in Wagner with a two-out single in the seventh, then moved all the way up to third when the ball got past the center fielder and went all the way to the wall. That allowed him to trot home on Simoneit's double, and the Big Red was back to within 8-6.
 
After stranding two runners in the eighth, Cornell mounted an even more ominous threat in the ninth with three consecutive singles to load the bases. After the first out, freshman Matt Collins was ruled safe on a bang-bang play at first to narrowly avert a game-ending double play, also allowing Rutherford to score and make the score 8-7 with runners on the corners. After Padulo was hit by a pitch to re-load the bases, the Lions were able to get the final out on a grounder fielded by the pitcher.