NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Cornell softball team earned a hard-fought 6-5 win on game two to salvage a split of Saturday's Ivy League doubleheader at Yale. The Bulldogs won a pitcher's duel 2-0 in the opener. The Big Red improved to 12-16 (4-7 Ivy), while the Bulldogs are now 9-21 (7-10 Ivy).
Game One
Yale's Maddie Latta outdueled the Big Red's
Mia Burd in the opener, allowing just two hits and four baserunners in picking up the complete game shutout. Burd allowed just seven hits herself, but the Bulldogs were able to scratch across single runs in the second and fourth innings to claim the victory.
The Bulldogs used back-to-back triples by Willa Ferrer and Lauren Perren in the second to go up 1-0, though Burd stranded the second runner at third to limit the damage. A pair of doubles plated the second run, with Perren scoring after her second extra-base hit of the contest.
Olivia Rooney and
Emily McKinney each singled for Cornell, which had its best chance of the day in the first.
Hanna Crist walked and Rooney singled to give the Big Red runners at first and second with one out, but that was all it would get off of Latta. One of the remaining two baserunners was eliminated on a double play, and none of them reached third base.
Game Two
Olivia Rooney was 3-for-4 and both
Emily McKinney and
Emma Antich drove in a pair of runs as the Big Red pulled out the 6-5 victory.
Gabrielle Maday went the distance in the circle, allowing six hits and three earned runs while striking out four.
Rooney got Cornell on the board with an RBI single with one out in the first, scoring Kerce after a leadoff single. The Big Red then added two in the third and three in the fourth to build a 6-0 lead.
The third inning saw Cornell use some two-out magic with consecutive infield hits being driven home with an McKinney double to make the edge 3-0.
Maday was perfect through four innings before Yale broke through for four runs in the fifth, but Maday settled down. She surrendered a leadoff single in the sixth, then mowed down the next three hitters to escape to the final inning with a two-run lead.
Yale was able to plate on when Miranda Papes hit a solo homer in the seventh, but it wasn't enough.
The teams will play a rubber game on Sunday, April 24 at 12:30 p.m.