WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Freshman Ashley Delany had a big day in the circle and the plate and the Big Red earned its first win of the season with a 9-5 victory over Canisius on Sunday afternoon at the George Washington Invitational. The Big Red dropped its second contest of the day 8-1 to Manhattan.

Game One
Delany earned her first collegiate win in the circle with a complete game and was 3-for-4 at the plate with a double and a pair of runs scored as the Big Red raced out to a 5-0 lead and held off the Golden Griffins in the morning contest. Brianna Straley went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI and Allison Kerce plated three runs. Bridgette Rooney added a pair of RBI in the victory.

Delaney scattered nine hits and five runs, but kept Canisius from rallying as the offense pounded out 10 hits. A four-run second inning, highlighted by two-run singles by Rooney and Kerce, put Cornell in the lead for good. Kerce added a sacrifice fly in the fourth to make it 5-0.

The Griffs got back to 5-3, then 6-5, but a three-run seventh inning by the Big Red put Cornell in the win column for the first time in 2019. Straley's two-run double down the leftfield line was the big blow in the frame.

Game Two
Seven different Cornell players registered a hit, but the Big Red couldn't string much together as Manhattan closed out an 8-1 victory on Sunday afternoon. Emily McKinney drove in the lone run for Cornell with an RBI double in the fifth inning. Ashley Delany took the loss, surrendering just one earned run in two innings.  Lisa Nelson allowed three runs in four innings, striking out four in relief.

Manhattan used a four-run second inning to to spark a 6-0 lead after four innings. Cornell would strand nine baserunners on the day.

Cornell will play five games at next weekend's George Mason Invitational, beginning with a matchup with the host Patriots on Friday, March 15 at 3:45 p.m.