ITHACA, N.Y. – Sophomore Seth Urbon earned his first collegiate victory in style on Saturday, tossing 8 2/3 innings to headline the baseball team's 8-3 win over Dartmouth in the second game of an Ivy League doubleheader at Hoy Field. The victory ended a five-game winless skid for Cornell (6-15-1, 2-6 Ivy League) after Dartmouth (8-16-1, 4-3-1) won Saturday's opener, 4-2.
 
Senior Ryan Krainz and junior Will Simoneit were both 4-for-8 over the two games, and senior Dale Wickham was 3-for-7. The rubber game of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday.
 
Game 1: DARTMOUTH 4, CORNELL 2
Senior Tim Willittes battled through a rough couple innings to turn in a quality start, backed up by some stellar defensive plays to minimize the damage.
 
After the Big Green pushed across two runs in the third inning, junior Josh Arndt saved two more runs by running to the wall and reaching up to snag a drive by Dartmouth's Dustin Shirley. In the fourth, senior first baseman Trey Baur made a diving stop and flip to Willittes covering first for a third out to strand a runner in scoring position.
 
The Big Red finally broke in the seventh when senior Ellis Bitar's lead-off walk was followed by a base hit by Baur. A picture-perfect push bunt by sophomore Kaleb Lepper moved both runners into scoring position, then Krainz drove them both in with a single over the leaping shortstop to cut Dartmouth's lead to 3-2.
 
But the Big Green pushed an unearned run across in the eighth inning, despite a full-speed diving catch by Lepper in center field. Cole O'Connor earned the victory with seven innings of work, yielding just five hits while working around four walks.
 
Game 2: CORNELL 8, DARTMOUTH 3
The Big Green threatened in the first inning with a double and a walk, but Urbon stranded both runners in the scoring position with a flyout. It was the first of 13 straight he retired before a sixth-inning walk, and Dartmouth didn't record its second hit until the start of the eighth.
 
Early indications were that it was going to be a pitchers' duel after Dartmouth starter Clay Chatham set down the first nine in order – but Cornell exploded for five hits in the fourth inning to take a 4-0 lead. Singles by Krainz and Wickham set the table for Simoneit's two-run double into the gap in left-center.
 
Arndt followed with a single to shallow left that sent Simoneit aggressively plateward. The throw beat him home, but it was in the turf and couldn't be corralled by the catcher, allowing Simoneit to leap over him and slap the plate with his hand for the third run. Arndt moved up to second on the throw, moved up to third on a passed ball, then trotted home to score on Baur's knock to left.
 
Dartmouth broke the tiring Urbon's shutout bid with a run in the eighth, then a couple more in the ninth forced Cornell's hand into turning to sophomore Andrew Ellison to record the final out. Urbon's start was Cornell's longest in nearly a year since Justin Lewis tossed a nine-inning shutout April 23, 2017 against Penn.