ITHACA, N.Y. –
Will Simoneit punctuated Senior Day with a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday to lead the baseball team to an 8-7 victory over Penn, its second walk-off victory in as many days at Hoy Field.
It was the second home run of the day and the third of the three-game Ivy League series for Simoneit, who launched a 3-and-2 pitch over the wall in left field to send the crowd into a frenzy. It gave Cornell (11-22, 6-12 Ivy League) its first league series victory, and gave the senior class of four a lasting memory in the team's final home game of the season.
Simoneit finished the day 3-for-5 with two home runs and a stolen base. All five of his RBI came on his homers in the seventh and ninth innings, the latter of which served as Cornell's first walk-off home run since an Ivy League Championship Series-clinching shot by
Chris Cruz '13 on May 6, 2012.
To get to that point, the Big Red fought back from a 7-3 deficit after Eduardo Malinowski's three-run homer in the seventh inning for Penn. Cornell responded with Simoneit's first homer in the bottom of the frame, cutting its deficit in half.
Junior
John Natoli worked two quiet innings of late relief to set the stage for more ninth-inning fireworks. Less than 24 hours after senior
Adam Saks hit a two-run triple to walk off a 4-3 win against the Quakers, Cornell – which entered the weekend 0-20 when trailing after eight innings – bucked that trend again Sunday. Freshman
Niko Lillios was hit by a pitch and a senior
Josh Arndt worked a two-out walk to bring Simoneit to the plate.
Penn reliever Grant Guillory fell behind 3-0 before a called first strike and a swinging second strike on an off-speed pitch. Simoneit golfed the next pitch to what seemed like halfway to the moon. Penn left fielder Eduardo Malinowski took a few strides toward the fence before turning away before the ball even began to descend.
While the Quakers struck first with Josh Hood's solo blast in the top of the second, Cornell stormed ahead thanks to extra-base hits from a pair of players who started the season primarily as pitchers. Freshman
Niko Lillios – making his first collegiate start in the field after nine relief appearances on the mound – hit a two-run double over third base in his first at-bat, then Saks led off the third with his second triple in as many days before coming home on junior
Matt Collins' base hit to give Cornell a 3-1 lead. Saks finished the day 3-for-4, having now reached base safely in all 21 of his starts in center field.
The Quakers took the lead with three runs in the fourth before tacking on three more in the seventh before Natoli stopped the bleeding. He ended up on the long side again, improving to 5-1. All five of his wins have come in relief.
Cornell is scheduled to return to action at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, when it makes a non-league trip to Binghamton before closing out its Ivy League season next weekend with three games at Dartmouth.
