WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Purdue Fort Wayne hit four home runs to lift the Mastodons to a 6-3 victory over the Cornell baseball team at David F. Couch Ballpark on Saturday morning.
Braedon Blackford hit two home runs for his second career Division I multi-home run game, and Grant Thoroman and Cade Nelis also hit round-trippers for the Mastodons (2-8). The victory snapped Purdue Fort Wayne's seven-game losing streak.
JD Deany earned the victory after yielding three hits over five shutout innings. He walked four and struck out eight over his outing, and the final five Cornell batters Deany faced were set down via strikeout.
Freshman Brody Fine pitched the final four innings, striking out seven Big Red batters, to earn the save.
Ethan Hamill was the losing pitcher of record for Cornell as the freshman right-hander surrendered three runs on six hits over four innings, while walking two and striking out three.
Senior
Sam Kaplan and sophomore
John Quinlan each had multi-hit days for the Big Red (0-5). Both of Kaplan's hits went for doubles, while Quinlan registered his first collegiate home run.
Purdue Fort Wayne struck first on the scoreboard in the home-half of the first on a two-out home run by Blackford. The Mastodons added a pair of hits following the round-tripper, but Hamill prevented further damage by getting a strikeout to end the frame.
Cornell threatened in both the second and third innings as it loaded the bases in each frame, but Deany escaped both bases-loaded jams unscathed.
Blackford recorded his second multi-home run game of his Division I collegiate career when he increased the Mastodons' lead in the third with a solo home run to right-center field.
The Mastodons tacked on a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly before a three-run fifth further extended their lead to 6-0. Thoroman and Nelis hit solo home runs in the fifth, with the other run in the inning came on a Cornell passed ball.
Deany and Fine dominated Cornell as the Mastodon duo combined to retire 15 consecutive Big Red batters from the fourth to ninth innings. Ten of the 15 outs came on strikeouts.
With one out in the ninth, junior catcher
Nathan Waugh hit a single up the middle, setting up Kaplan for his second double of the day. Quinlan gave the Big Red some life when he powered a 2-0 pitch over the fence in right field for his first collegiate round-tripper, thwarting Purdue Fort Wayne's shutout bid.
Fine slammed the door on a Cornell comeback attempt as he punched out the final two batters of the contest to earn his first collegiate save.
Game Notes
• Cornell and Purdue Fort Wayne met for the first time in program history on Saturday morning. It was the first time the Big Red played a member of the Horizon League since 2002 when it played Milwaukee, also at a neutral site, in Homestead, Fla.
• Kaplan became the first Cornell player this season to register multiple doubles in a contest. He is the first Big Red player with two-plus doubles in a game since sophomore infielder
Max Jensen did so against Princeton last year on April 10.
• Quinlan became the third Cornell player this season to log his first collegiate home run, joined by sophomore outfielder
Jakobi Davis and freshman infielder
TJ Swidorski.
• Sophomore outfielder
Kyle Musser made his season debut for the Big Red, recording a single in his first at-bat in the third inning.
Looking Ahead
Cornell will conclude its three-game road trip in Winston-Salem, N.C., against No. 5-ranked Wake Forest on Sunday. First pitch from David F. Couch Ballpark is scheduled for 1 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.
