TOWSON, Md. – The baseball team secured a pair of victories on Saturday at Schuerholz Park, first winning a pitchers' duel against Fordham, 1-0, before rallying to defeat host Towson, 4-2, later in the afternoon.
 
Cornell (3-8) wraps up the weekend with another game against Towson at 11 a.m. Sunday.
 
GAME 1: Cornell 1, Fordham 0 (Box Score)
Freshman Justin Taylor led off the game by reaching first on a throwing error, then eventually came around to score on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Kalani Matton.
 
The Big Red had six additional runners in scoring position, but couldn't push another run across – though it ultimately didn't need to thanks to junior Colby Wyatt. The reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Week made a case for a repeat honor this week after tossing a career-high 7.2 scoreless innings to earn his first victory of the season – helped by his defense against a Fordham squad that challenges teams on the base paths.
 
With runners on second and third with one out in the second, Matton caught a pop-up from his post at second base before gunning down a runner trying to tag up and score. Entering the game with an average of better than three stolen bases per contest, Fordham (10-9) quieted on the base paths by senior catcher Will Simoneit. He backpicked a runner off first base in the sixth inning, then threw to third for a caught stealing in the eighth.
 
After Wyatt's departure, junior Andrew Ellison – the team's closer from a season ago – recorded the final four outs in his first outing of the year to earn the save. It didn't come easy. A lead-off double was negated when third baseman Matt Collins tagged out the runner trying to advance on a fielder's choice.
 
The Rams would eventually get the potential winning run to second base before Ellison induced a swinging strikeout and a pop-up to end the game.
 
Cornell's three hits in the game were all singles, coming from junior Matt Collins, and sophomores Ramon Garza and Jason Apostle.
 
GAME 2: Cornell 4, Towson 2 (Box Score)
Freshman Austin Flematti was 2-for-3 with a double and a two-run single in the eighth inning that plated the tying and go-ahead runs for the Big Red, which rallied for a 2-0 deficit after six innings.
 
Flematti led off the seventh with a double down the line in left, then scored on a wild pitch. Sophomore Nicholas Binnie and Garza led off the eighth with singles, then moved to second and third with junior Alex Carnegie's sacrifice bunt before Flematti's base hit drove them both in.
 
Sophomore Dave Guiliano scored Cornell's fourth run after leading off the ninth with a double to left, then moving up 90 feet on a pair of flyouts to right – the latter serving as an RBI for senior Josh Arndt.
 
Meanwhile, junior John Natoli mowed down all 10 batters he saw to earn the victory. Freshman Jonathan Zacharias yielded just an unearned run through four innings in his first collegiate start, then Towson (2-12) pushed across another run in the sixth before Natoli emerged from the bullpen.