ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team was swept by Brown in its first home Ivy League doubleheader of the season at Hoy Field on Saturday afternoon.
In the opening game, Brown posted a 12-8 victory over Cornell, taking advantage of four Big Red miscues. The nightcap was a stark difference from the first game as an RBI fielder's choice by Brown in the fourth inning was the lone run scored in the Bears' 1-0 win.
Cornell is now 4-17 on the year and is tied with Brown for sixth in the Ivy League standings with identical 3-5 marks. Brown improved to 6-17 overall with the pair of victories.
Game One Recap
Five Brown players recorded multi-hit performances, while combining for all 13 hits, in the Bears' 12-8 victory in the opening game of Saturday's twin bill.
Derian Morphew drove in three runs to pace Brown's offense. Morphew went 2-for-5 with a double, while scoring three times. Jared Johnson recorded a team-high three hits in the victory for the Bears.
Bobby Olsen was the winning pitcher after logging 4.1 relief innings of starting pitcher Paxton Meyers. Olsen allowed one runs on five hits and struck out seven. Jack Seppings fanned all three Big Red batters he faced in the final inning to solidify the Bears' triumph.
Junior catcher
Nathan Waugh shined for Cornell in the setback, going 2-for-3 with a double, home run, and driving in four runs. Joining Waugh with a multi-hit performance was sophomore shortstop
Ryan Porter, who went 2-for-5.
Freshman right-handed pitcher
Ethan Hamill was the losing pitcher for Cornell, after he gave up nine runs (only two of which were earned) on seven hits over the first three frames. Fellow freshmen
Beck Urofsky and
John Gerfen were two of four Big Red relievers who excelled out of the bullpen.
Brown opened the scoring in the first inning when DJ Dillehay registered an RBI groundout after a pair of singles to open the contest.
Senior third baseman
Joe Hollerbach gave Cornell a 2-1 lead behind a two-out, two-run single while the bases were loaded. Sophomore second baseman
Max Jensen ignited the two-out rally when he was hit by the first pitch he saw from Meyers. Consecutive walks drawn by Waugh and senior right fielder
Sam Kaplan led to Hollerbach's go-ahead base knock.
Brown took an 8-2 lead after plating seven runs in the third inning, ultimately putting the Bears ahead for good. All seven runs ended up being unearned after Cornell committed a pair of errors.
The Big Red's deficit was trimmed in the home-half of the third thanks to a two-run home run to left-center field by Waugh.
A sacrifice fly by Ryan Marra increased the Bears' lead in the fourth, 9-4, before Cornell scored three runs in the bottom of the inning.
Porter was the first Cornell player to score in the home-half of the fourth, benefiting from a wild pitch by Meyers. Senior left fielder
Wils Guy hit a one-out RBI double to left field before Waugh lasered a two-out RBI single back up the middle to make it a 9-7 contest.
Brown's lead went back up to five after a pair of runs scored following a throwing error on an attempted bunt by Mika Peterson, who then crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Dillehay.
Waugh added an RBI groundout in the eighth, but the tandem of Olsen and Seppings prevented Cornell from making a late-game comeback.
Game Two Recap
In stark contrast from the opening game, it was a pitcher's duel between sophomore right-hander Santhosh Gottam and freshman left-hander
Noah Keller.
Gottam pitched seven-plus scoreless innings, scattering eight hits and also fanning an octet of Big Red batter en route to his first win of the season.
Seppings earned his second save of the season as he struck out three Cornell batters in the final two innings.
Both teams worked quickly, and efficiently, as the contest was completed in under two hours (1:55).
Keller had his best start as a member of the Big Red as he gave up one run on five hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
The seven innings pitched and the seven strikeouts were both season highs for the first-year hurler.
Carson Mayfield, another Cornell freshman, gave up one hit and fanned a pair of Bears hitters in his two innings of relief.
Brown's Mika Petersen and Mark Henshon were the lone two Bears players to have multi-hit performances. The lone extra-base hit of the game came in the eighth when Petersen roped a double down the left-field line.
Sophomore catcher
John Quinlan had a strong performance in the nightcap, going 3-for-4 at the plate. Quinlan was the lone Big Red player with a multi-hit game.
Brown was the first team to threaten to score after the first three batters recorded base hits to load the bases. Nathan Brasher ultimately brought home the game's only run on an RBI's fielder's choice, as the Big Red could not successfully turn a double play.
Including the failed twin killing, Keller retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced as the lone base runner he allowed came on a one-out single in the fifth by Henshon. Keller struck out the last three batters in the seventh to conclude his day.
Keller peppered the strike zone throughout the contest as he finished with 74 of his 109 pitches going for strikes (67.9 percent).
Cornell had a chance to plate its first run of the game in the home-half of the fourth when Hollerbach singled to the right-center field gap, putting runners at the corners with two outs. Junior first baseman
Ryan Ross, however, grounded into a fielder's choice to close out the inning.
In the eighth, Quinlan led the inning off with a single through the right side of the infield, capping an eight-pitch at-bat. The Bears made the call to the bullpen, opting to bring in Seppings for a second time on the day.
Seppings threw a wild pitch on the second pitch of the at-bat to sophomore left field
Kyle Musser, allowing Quinlan to advance 90 feet to second base. Despite having the runner in scoring position with nobody out, Seppings' off-speed pitches allowed the right-hander to post three consecutive strikeouts to get out of the inning unscathed.
After a successful eighth, Seppings set down the Big Red in order with a pair of groundouts and a fly out in the ninth to preserve the Bears' one-run victory.
Game Notes
• Cornell and Brown played for the 133rd and 134th times on Saturday, as the Bears improved to 7-1 in its last eight against the Big Red. The pair of wins for Brown increased its win streak in Ithaca to eight games.
• Waugh's four RBI matches his career high, previously established last weekend at Columbia. Over his last five games, the junior catcher has driven in 10 of his team-leading 13 RBI. He also extended his hit streak to six games, which is the longest of his collegiate career.
• With his lone hit in the opening game, senior left fielder
Wils Guy increased his hit streak to five games, which matches the longest hit streak of his collegiate career for a fifth time.
• Following its 10-hit performance in the opening game, Cornell recorded 10-plus hits in six consecutive games. It was the Big Red's longest streak with a double-digit hit total since also going stringing together six 10-hit games early on in the 2017 campaign.
• The 1-0 setback for Cornell was the first time it was shutout in a game since being shut out in the first two games of the 2020 season by No. 16-ranked Duke on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22, 2020. Cornell had previously scored in each of its last 63 games.
• It is the first time Cornell has played in a game that featured just one run being scored since beating Fordham, 1-0, on March 16, 2019, in Towson, Md. The last time the Big Red was on the losing end of a 1-0 contest was in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Bucknell on March 26, 2018.
• So far through three Ivy League starts, freshman
Noah Keller has a 1-2 record with a 2.12 ERA, while striking out 19 batters and issuing just five walks over 17 innings. Ancient Eight opponents are hitting just .222 off the southpaw hurler.
• Keller's classmate,
Carson Mayfield, has logged an ERA of 2.53 and a 0.88 WHIP while holding Ivy League opposition to a .154 clip in his four relief outings.
Looking Ahead
Cornell will look to avoid being swept in an Ivy League series for the first time this season when it plays the series finale against Brown on Easter Sunday. First pitch from Hoy Field is scheduled for 12 p.m. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+.
