ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior Ryan Krainz was 4-for-4 and senior Tommy Morris battled through a quality start in his last outing at Hoy Field, but the baseball team's late rally came up short and resulted in a 3-2 loss to Columbia on Sunday in the Big Red's season finale.
 
Down two in the ninth, senior Pierre Le Dorze started the final push with a double off the Lions' third baseman. He moved up to third on a groundout, then scored on Krainz's fourth single of the day. That brought the potential winning run to the plate, but a flyout left Cornell 14-22-1 overall and 9-12 in the Ivy League for the season.
 
Columbia (18-27, 13-8) loaded the bases in the third, but senior catcher Ellis Bitar bailed his team out with a perfectly executed back pick to third base. It was his fourth pickoff of the season, and it kept set the stage for Cornell to take the lead in the bottom half of the inning.
 
Krainz was on second base when a fly ball by senior Kyle Gallagher was caught for the second out, then he tagged up to advance. The throw in short-hopped the cut-off man, and Krainz motored around third and somehow got under a relay throw that beat him to the plate.
 
Columbia (18-27, 13-8) immediately threatened to counter in the fourth, swatting back-to-back singles to lead off. With the infield in on anticipation of a bunt, Columbia's Matt Cerfolio pulled the bat back and made solid contact. Krainz snagged it, and made the heads-up play to tag out the runner from first base while allowing senior first baseman Trey Baur to retreat to the bag and take the flip to complete a double play.
 
The Lions finally broke through in the fifth, though Morris limited the visitors to one run even though the bases were again loaded with one out. A couple of misplayed balls in the outfield allowed Columbia to take a 2-1 lead in the sixth.
 
Senior Dale Wickham doubled down the first-base line in the sixth to end his collegiate career on a streak of 23 consecutive games of reaching base safely. That chased Columbia starter Ben Wereski, but Ty Wiest was solid for four innings to earn the save.
 
Morris ended up with the hard-luck loss despite yielding two runs in 6 1/3 innings while scattering eight hits around three walks and one strikeout. Senior Austin Wahl worked the final 2 2/3 innings of relief.
 
Before the game, the Big Red held a Senior Day ceremony for Baur, Bitar, Tyler Fernandez, Gallagher, Krainz, Le Dorze, Morris, Wahl, Wickham and Tim Willittes.