ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team didn't retreat after losing a heartbreaking 12-inning contest in the opener, rallying behind a grand slam from senior Olivia Rooney for a 5-2 victory over Penn in game two of Saturday's doubleheader at Penn Park. The Big Red had brilliant pitching efforts in both games, with a complete game win from Gabrielle Maday and an 11-inning gem by Mia Burd in the 8-7 loss in the opener. 

Cornell's split moved its record to 6-12 (2-3 Ivy), while Penn is 8-19 (4-4 Ivy).

Game One
Cornell again showed its ability to battle back, but the Quakers scored single runs in the 11th and 12th innings to steal an 8-7 victory from the Big Red in the opener. The nearly four-hour game became the fourth-longest in Cornell history. Nearly all of it came with Mia Burd in the circle.

Burd went 11.0 innings, the fourth-longest pitching stint in school history. Though she didn't factor in the decision, Burd scattered 13 hits and allowed just four earned runs while striking out seven.

Olivia Rooney got the Big Red on the board in the first with a two-run single, but the Quakers chipped away with a run in the third and three in the fourth. The back-and-forth continued, as Hanna Crist homered in her fourth straight game and for the fifth time in her last six starts to get the visitors back within 4-3. A two-run single by Celia Macari put Cornell back in the lead, and an RBI single by Rooney gave the Big Red a 6-4 edge heading into the bottom of the sixth. Unfazed, Sarah  Schneider tied it up with a two-run shot to knot the score.

It stayed that way until the 11th inning, when Cornell scratched together a run, scoring on a Maicie Levitt fielder's choice to take an 8-7 edge. Not to be outdone, Penn tied the score in the bottom half of the inning on a solo shot by Emma Nedley to extend the game.

Penn's winner came off the bat of Bella Fiorentino, an infield single to short that scored a run after a pair of walks put runners in scoring position.

Rooney finished 3-fo-6 with a walk, three RBI and a run scored, while Hanna Crist and Lilly Travieso also had two hits and a walk apiece.  For Penn, Laurel McKelvey went 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, while Sarah Schneider was 3-for-6 with a walk, a pair of RBI and three runs scored.

Game Two
Penn scored a run in the first and maintained that lead until the Big Red broke through in the sixth when Olivia Rooney blasted a grand slam, the second career homer for the senior. 

Gabrielle Maday made it stand up.

Maday took the hard-luck loss in the opener, but bounced right back by going the distance for the complete game win. She didn't allow an earned run, scattered four hits and struck out two.

Cornell scored an insurance run on an Emily McKinney RBI single in the seventh and Penn got it back in the bottom half of the frame, but Maday stranded two runners and the tying run at the plate.

The top three in the order, Maicie Levitt, Allison Kerce and Emily McKinney, combined to go 6-for-10, while Rooney drove in four of the five runs for the Big Red.

Cornell and Penn will meet in the runner game on Sunday, April 2 at 12:30 p.m. at Penn Park.