ITHACA, N.Y. – Junior Will Simoneit turned in his second straight three-hit game and the baseball team made a late charge Saturday, but Yale held on for a 7-4 victory in the series opener on Saturday afternoon at Hoy Field.
 
Yale (9-14, 5-2), the defending Ivy League champion and current leader in this year's standings, built a 6-1 lead through six innings behind a strong outing from starter Scott Politz, the reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year. On a cold day where both starters struggled to control the strike zone on a consistent basis, Politz managed to limit the damage in his seven innings of work.
 
The lone run Cornell (5-12, 1-3) mustered against Politz came in the second inning. Simoneit's first of three singles through the left side of the infield was followed by a walk from senior Dale Wickham in the second inning, then freshman Jason Apostle plated Simoneit to momentarily tie the score at 1.
 
Junior Josh Arndt singled in the fourth inning to extend his hit streak to eight games, but that came in the midst of five consecutive runs from the Bulldogs before the Big Red's late charge against the visitors' bullpen – aided by an error and a passed ball.
 
Senior Kyle Gallagher led off with a double and had advanced to third on a flyout, then scored on a ball off the bat of Wickham. Yale's shortstop fielded the ground ball, but his throw pulled the first baseman up the line. Wickham ran through the attempted tag, sending the ball into the infield while Gallagher crossed the plate.
 
Senior Pierre Le Dorze, a defensive replacement an inning prior, following with an RBI double to left-center to cut Cornell's deficit to 6-3 entering the ninth.
 
After the Bulldogs tacked on one more run, the Big Red threatened again after senior Ryan Krainz worked a one-out walk to extend his streak of consecutive games reaching base to 14. He moved up to second on a passed ball, then came in to score on senior Ellis Bitar's base hit up the middle. That put the tying run in the on-deck circle, but that's as close as Cornell could get.
 
The teams will attempt to complete the series on Sunday with two nine-inning games starting at 11:30 a.m.