HANOVER, N.H. – Sophomores Jason Apostle and Nicholas Binnie had four hits apiece, freshman Jonathan Zacharias was masterful in earning his first collegiate victory, and junior John Natoli recorded a pair of saves in the baseball team's doubleheader sweep of Dartmouth on Saturday at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.
 
Not only did the victories push the winning streak to a season-high five games for Cornell (14-24, 8-12 Ivy League), it also lifts the team ahead of Dartmouth (14-26, 7-13) in the league standings with just one game remaining. The teams wrap up their Ivy League season with the series finale at noon Sunday.
 
Game 1: CORNELL 8, DARTMOUTH 6 (Box Score)
The bottom third of the order delivered eight of the Big Red's season-high 14 hits, including the first collegiate three-hit game from junior Alex Carnegie. He was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and sophomore Nicholas Binnie was also 3-for-4 with three runs scored.
 
Cornell scored the first five runs of the game by the fourth inning. Back-to-back doubles by Binnie and Carnegie in the second broke the ice, then senior Adam Saks led off the third with a base hit and scored on senior Will Simoneit's double to left-center. Simoneit would steal third base and come home on one of Dartmouth's four errors in the game.
 
Junior Matt Collins kept the pressure on by hitting his second home run of the season to lead off the fourth. Binnie and Carnegie followed with singles to the middle of the field, and sophomore Jason Apostle's sacrifice bunt moved them into scoring position. Saks' sacrifice fly plated Binnie for a 5-0 lead.
 
Dartmouth responded with four straight two-out singles in the fourth to bring home to bring in two runs, but junior Colby Wyatt minimized the damage by leaving the bases loaded on a called third strike. Cornell built its lead back up to 8-2 with three runs in the sixth, aided by four singles, a couple of errors and a sacrifice fly from freshman Niko Lillios.
 
The Big Red pushed one more across in the sixth before Wyatt induced a groundball double play to end his outing. He scattered 10 hits while working six full frames, yielding three runs – his best start since a March 30 outing at Yale.
 
But the Big Green wasn't done. A two-run homer by Nate Ostmo in the seventh cut the hosts' deficit to three, then a potential inning-ending ground ball led to a thorwing error and Dartmouth's sixth run.
 
Natoli mowed down the Big Green from there, retiring seven straight with three strikeouts.
 
Game 2: CORNELL 2, DARTMOUTH 1 (Box Score)
Three straight hits with two out in the third inning – two of which deflected off Dartmouth defenders' gloves – led to both Big Red runs, and a trio of Big Red pitchers were masterful in making the lead stand up.
 
After Dartmouth starter Justin Murray set down eight in a row to start the game, Apostle set the table in the third. He hit a soft liner that looped over the head of Dartmouth's second baseman, who leaped to snag it with his glove – only the ball popped out, and Apostle ended up with a single.
 
Saks followed with a drive to the corner in right that ticked off the glove of a diving outfielder. Apostle scored easily, and Saks legged out his third triple in just his last five games. Arndt then dumped the next pitch into right field, scoring Saks and giving the Big Red a quick 2-0 lead.
 
That was enough for Zacharias, who worked into the seventh inning for the first time in seven collegiate starts – and he needed only 60 pitches to do so. After a single to lead off the bottom of the first, Zacharias recorded 18 outs against the next 18 batters. The only runner in that stretch was later retired on a double play.
 
Dartmouth's third hit against Zacharias was Matt Feinstein's double to lead off the seventh. He would eventually scored after Zacharias' departure on a base hit by Steffen Torgersen, and the Big Green cut its deficit to one run with two innings to play.
 
Junior reliever Andrew Ellison set down six straight before Dartmouth pushed the tying run to scoring position and winning run to first after a single and hit-by-pitch. Natoli was summoned from the bullpen again, and he earned his seventh save with his 38th strikeout of the season.