UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Cornell softball team split Sunday's doubleheader to conclude the Penn State tournament, sweeping the weekend against UMass Lowell with an 8-5 victory and falling to the host Nittany Lions 10-2 in five innings in the nightcap at Beard Field. The Big Red is 3-9 after going 2-3 over the weekend, with two of its losses coming on walk-off hits by Penn State and Rider.
Game One
A six-run sixth inning and a season-high 11 hits lifted Cornell past UMass Lowell in the opener. Four batters had multiple hits and both
Emma Antich and
Hanna Crist homered as Cornell evened its record at the Penn State Tournament at 2-2 with the victory.
Gabrielle Maday earned the save and shut the door on a comeback after the RiverHawks loaded the bases and put the game winning run at the plate. It avoided its fate from the previous two games allowing a walk-off by retiring the final two batters to earn its third win of the season.
Antich drove in three runs, with
Emily McKinney and Crist plating two. Cornell had six extra-base hits in the win after posting just xxx in total over its first 10 games. Both
Maicie Levitt and
Celia Macari had two hits apiece, including a double, while
Marisa Zorrilla reached base three times, scoring twice, on the strength of three walks.
The Big Red scored twice in the fourth, but UMass Lowell stormed back with two of its own in the bottom of the frame and the go-ahead run in the sixth. That set up a Big Red offensive explosion in the sixth.
Zorrilla, who walked twice in the inning, opened innocently enough by walking on four pitches, then advancing on a passed ball. Two batters later, Crist homered to help Cornell regain the lead at 4-3. Two more batters later, Antich hit her first career shot to left-center to tack on a run. Three more were plated after a pitching change, as a Levitt single and a double by
Lilly Travieso set up McKinney for a two-run double, then scored when Macari dropped a single in to center to make it 8-3.
UMass Lowell scored two runs in the bottom of the frame, then threatened by loading the bases in the seventh with one out. A pair of groundouts ended the inning and gave the Big Red the win.
Mia Burd picked up her first win of the season in the circle, allowing five runs and 11 hits over five innings before Maday shut the door, allowing one hit over the final two innings of work.
Game Two
Penn State scored two runs in the first, taking advantage of a two-out error and giving an extra chance to Lexie Black. The junior made the Big Red pay, slamming a two-run shot to left-center to dent the scoreboard.
Cornell threatened in the second when
Emily McKinney led off the inning with a double, but she was stranded there. The Nittany Lions pounced, plating a third run in the third on a walk, a single, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0, with Black adding a third RBI on the afternoon.
McKinney, who doubled earlier in the game, hit a two-run homer in the fourth to cut the Penn State lead to 3-2, but the Nittany Lions plated four in the bottom of the inning to open the game back up, then three more in the fifth to end it.
McKinney went 2-for-2 a double, homer and both RBI, while
Lilly Travieso also had a hit to lead the Big Red. Black and Maggie Finnegan drove in three runs apiece for the Nittany Lions, while Lydia Spalding and Kylee Lingenfelter combined on a three-hitter.
Cornell opens Ivy League season with a three-game set against Columbia beginning on Saturday, March 26 at 12:30 p.m. at Niemand*Robison Field. Saturday will be a doubleheader, followed by a single game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. All three games will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
