ITHACA, N.Y. – The baseball team set a new season high for runs in a game, rallying from five runs down to top Princeton, 15-9, in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday at Hoy Field. Cornell fell in the first game, 7-2, to set up the series finale at noon Sunday as the rubber game.
 
Seniors Josh Arndt and Will Simoneit each had four hits with a double, sophomore Jason Apostle had a single, a double, and a triple, and the Cornell (8-20, 4-10 Ivy League) was a perfect 6-for-6 on stolen-base attempts. Taylor Beckett had six hits on the day for Princeton (9-22, 5-9).
 

Game 1: PRINCETON 7, CORNELL 2 (Box Score)

The Tigers came out swinging with three runs on five hits in the first inning before junior starter Colby Wyatt settled in and worked into the fifth inning. That's when Princeton loaded the bases with no outs before plating a run on a groundout. Wyatt induced a pop-up to shallow right for the second out and keep the runner at third, but nine-hole hitter Ramzi Haddad followed with a two-run single to center.
 
Freshman Luke Yacinich soaked up four innings for the Big Red, yielding just a single run in long relief.
 
Meanwhile, lefty Ryan Smith was excellent out of the windup for the Tigers. When Cornell did get runners on, he was able to work out of trouble – until the eighth inning.
 
Senior Adam Saks hit a one-out double to left-center, then Arndt served a single through the left side of the infield to drive in Saks. Arndt later scored on a double down the line in right by sophomore Ramon Garza.
 

Game 2: CORNELL 15, PRINCETON 9 (Box Score)

The Big Red offense exploded in a wild back-and-forth affair that saw the teams combine for 18 walks, Princeton pitchers uncork seven wild pitches and Cornell have five different base-stealers.
 
The Big Red jumped in front with a run in the first. Arndt singled, stole second, moved to third on a productive groundout, then scored on a wild pitch.
The lead grew to 3-0 in the third after a pair of walks set the table for Simoneit's two-run double past the left fielder.
 
Princeton drew four walks and got a run-scoring double from Beckett in the fourth inning, which helped the visitors tie the game and get back into the Cornell bullpen. But the real fireworks came in the fifth inning.
 
The Tigers took advantage of a pair of Big Red errors to plate five unearned runs, capped with a two-run double by Chris Davis with two out. Cornell answered right back with its first seven-run inning of the season.
 
Arndt drove in the first run with a double down the line in left, then Garza was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the second. That spelled the end of the day for Princeton starter James Proctor, though Cornell found even more success against the visitors' bullpen. Specific to the fifth inning, two wild pitches kept the train moving. Junior Alex Carnegie plated the tying run with a ground out, then freshman Austin Flematti drove in the go-ahead run. Apostle put the exclamation point on the frame with a triple into the gap in right-center.
 
Dan Pepicelli, the Ted Thoren Head Coach of Baseball, then opted to turn the game over to junior closer John Natoli even though it was just the sixth inning. And even though the Tigers scratched out a run in the sixth on a walk, stolen base and a single, the decision paid off in spades. He didn't allow another runner past first base the rest way, working four innings to be credited with his third win of the season.
 
Cornell restored its two-run lead in the seventh after Flematti was hit by a pitch and Apostle pulled a double over first base, making the score 11-9. Carnegie then put the game away with a three-run triple to the wall in right-center in the eighth.