PRINCETON, N.J. – The baseball team opened Ivy League play with a Saturday doubleheader split at Princeton, defating the Tigers to start the day, 5-2, before suffering a 10-4 loss in the night cap at Clarke Field.
 
Cornell (4-10, 1-1 Ivy) used a four-run sixth inning to surge into the lead behind another solid start from senior Tim Willittes, who is now 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA and 16 strikeouts over his last three starts. Princeton (4-11, 1-1) responded by pounding 15 hits in the second game to blow the game open late and overcome eight errors on the day.
 
The rubber game of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 5, PRINCETON 2
Three singles and a hit-by-pitch allowed the Tigers to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead before Willittes shut the door with seven strikeouts and no walks. He only allowed five runners from there, and two reached on errors.
 
Freshman Jason Apostle was 3-for-4 in the game, with the first of his two RBIs coming in the fourth inning to cut the Big Red's deficit to 2-1. The rest of Cornell's offense came whilst batting around in the sixth, but only after the Big Red defense delivered in the bottom of the fifth. Jesper Horsted hit a double to left with one out and Asher Lee-Tyson attempted to score from first, but he was tagged out by senior catcher Ellis Bitar after sophomore Kaleb Lepper collected and set up the relay throw from freshman shortstop Kalani Matton.
 
Senior Kyle Gallagher, who was 2-for-4, led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Dale Wickham to tie the game at 2. It was Wickham's team-leading 11th RBI. Three straight singles followed from juniors Josh Arndt and Will Simoneit, and Apostle to drive in Arndt for the go-ahead run. Lepper then sent a two-run double up the left-field line to plate a couple insurance runs.
 
Sophomore Colby Wyatt worked a quiet two innings to earn his second save.
 
Game 2: PRINCETON 10, CORNELL 4
The Tigers struck first with two runs in the bottom of the third, but the Big Red countered with four in the fourth. Arndt pulled a one-out single into right, then came around to score on a double to left by senior Trey Baur. An error and a walk kept the inning alive and loaded the bases, then Bitar emptied them with a three-run triple to give Cornell a 4-2 lead.
 
But that advantage was short-lived with Princeton plating three in the bottom half of the frame. Another run came across in the sixth, but junior reliever Adam Saks limited the damage by getting a swinging strikeout to leave the bases loaded. Princeton then scored four in the eighth.
 
Senior Ryan Krainz had a single in the third to push his streak of games reaching base to 12. Simoneit stretched his hitting streak to a team-high seven games.