ITHACA, N.Y. -- Freshman Allison Kerce's three-run home run in the fifth rallied Cornell into the lead and classmate Hanna Crist's RBI single in the sixth sealed the Big Red softball team's 5-4 win over Brown on Monday at Niemand*Robison Field. The win clinched a series victory over the Bears and improved Cornell's record to 3-14 (2-1 Ivy). Brown fell to 6-10 (1-2 Ivy) with the loss.

For the second straight day, Kerce had a late-inning three-run shot to put Cornell into the lead, driving in four runs on the afternoon. Cornell mustered just four hits on the day against Brown's Lauren Innerst, but hits at key times led the Big Red to its second straight win.

Ashley Delany scattered eight hits and allowed two runs in the first four innings, with Katie Lew coming in for the final three en route to her first win of the year in the circle. 

Innerst had a no hitter through 4.1 innings, but Delany and Lew stranded 11 Brown baserunners to keep Cornell in the game. Cornell chipped away at the Bears, scoring a run in the third without a hit, taking advantage of a walk, a hit batsman, a fielder's choice that didn't yield an out and a Kerce sacrifice fly to plate a runner.

Trailing 3-1 entering the bottom of the fifth, Delany singled through the middle to break up the no-no, then Emily Muniz reached on an error. One batter later, Kerce got around on the first pitch from Innerst and line-drived it over the leftfield fence to give Cornell a 4-3 edge.

The Bears scraped together a run in the sixth to knot it at 4-4 on a double by Innerst helping her own cause, but Crist singled up the middle and Erin Rockstroh beat the tag. Lew gave up a lead-off infield single in the seventh, but stranded the runner at third to close out the game.

The Big Red will return to non-conference action on Wednesday, March 27 at Binghamton for a 3 p.m. doubleheader.