ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior Frankie Padulo had two doubles among his three hits and senior Paul Balestrieri battled through seven innings of work to earn his fourth victory of the season in the baseball team's doubleheader split with Yale on Sunday at Hoy Field.
 
Yale (10-11, 1-1 Ivy League) won the first game, 7-2, then Cornell (10-8, 1-3) staved off the Bulldogs for a 6-4 win in the nightcap.
 
The Big Red is back in action with a pair of non-league games this week, visiting Georgetown at 3 p.m. Tuesday and Towson at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
 
Game 1: YALE 7, CORNELL 2 (Box Score)
The Big Red was only able to scrape out a couple runs against Bulldogs ace Scott Politz, who struck out eight in a complete-game effort.
 
Cornell starter Tommy Morris artfully worked in and out of trouble in the first four innings. Yale pushed a runner into scoring position with a stolen base in each of the first two innings, but Morris had strikeouts to end each inning.
 
A double, infield hit and walk then loaded the bases with two outs in the third. Griffin Dey then hit a towering fly ball to left that rode the wind, but descended just in time to be snagged on the warning track.
 
Yale threatened again in the fourth with a runner on first and two outs when Dai Dai Otaka roped a double that short-hopped the wall in left. Junior Pierre Le Dorze did well to collect the ball and hit the cut-off man, then Ryan Krainz's relay throw was right on the money to sophomore catcher Will Simoneit for the tag and the third out.
 
before Yale finally took advantage with Griffin Dey's three-run home run to left-center in the fifth.
 
The Big Red finally put a dent in Politz in the bottom of the fifth, with Le Dorze setting the table with a double to right-center. A balk then moved him up to third base, and Simoneit drove him in with a grounder to shortstop to cut the Big Red's deficit to 3-1.
 
Yale then broke the game open with three more runs in the sixth, and Cornell couldn't take advantage of loading the bases in the bottom half of the frame.
 
Game 2: CORNELL 6, YALE 4 (Box Score)
Krainz was 2-for-3 with two runs, two stolen bases and two RBI, and the Big Red struck early to snap a five-game losing streak.
 
Junior Dale Wickham and senior Cole Rutherford hit back-to-back doubles to lead off the the bottom of the third, tying the game at 3. A base hit by junior Trey Baur then knocked Yale starter Mason Kukowski out of the game and put runners on the corners with no outs.
 
Rutherford scored Cornell's fourth run on a fielder's choice paired with an error, then a sacrifice fly brought in Baur to give the home side a 5-3 lead.
 
Balestrieri settled down after Yale's three-run third to get through seven innings, scattering seven hits while also striking out seven — perhaps none bigger than the swinging strikeout of Dey to strand runners on second and third in the fifth, keeping the Big Red ahead, 5-4.
 
Cornell then added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth, when Padulo's double was followed by an RBI single from Krainz.
 
The bullpen took care of the rest, with senior Matt Horton working his seventh straight scoreless outing of the season by stranding two runners in the eighth. Senior Peter Lannoo then earned his team-leading third save of the year with a quiet ninth.