HARRISONBURG, Va. — Freshman third baseman
Luke Johnson and junior left fielder
John Quinlan each logged multi-hit games as the Cornell baseball team fell to James Madison, 8-5, on Saturday afternoon at Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park.
Mason Dunaway, Brendan O'Donnell, and Wyatt Peifer each had two RBI for the Dukes (7-3), who extended their win streak to six games with the victory.
Max Kuhle was the winning pitcher of record for James Madison after striking out nine Cornell batters over his 5.1 innings. Jackson Logar recorded his second save of the season, tossing three scoreless innings of relief while fanning a trio of Big Red hitters.
Senior right-handed pitcher
Von Baker made his first start of the season for the Big Red (1-4) but could not escape the first inning, allowing five runs on two hits in just 0.1 innings of work. He also issued three walks and hit one James Madison batter.
Freshman left-handed pitcher
Huxley Holcombe pitched 4.1 scoreless innings of relief of Baker, allowing five hits while walking a pair and striking out one. Fellow freshmen
Nathaniel Jennewein and
Max Foster also saw action for the Big Red on the mound.
James Madison opened a five-run lead in the first inning as the first five batters all reached base safely. Dunaway opened the scoring with a two-run double with the bases loaded. O'Donnell and Jacob Steinberg both had sacrifice flies before Jason Schiavone singled home the last run of the inning for the Dukes.
Kuhle held Cornell without a hit until the sixth inning as the sophomore southpaw retired 13 consecutive batters. The Big Red tied the game with a five-run sixth behind an RBI triple by junior first baseman
Max Jensen, RBI singles by senior designated hitter
Nathan Waugh and senior infielder
Matt Barnhorst, an RBI double by junior right fielder
Ryan Porter, and an RBI groundout by freshman catcher
Mark Quatrani.
The Dukes responded with a two-out RBI triple from Peifer in the sixth and a two-out RBI single by O'Donnell in the eighth to solidify the victory.
GAME NOTES
• Saturday was the 10th all-time meeting between Cornell and James Madison. The Dukes have won the last five in the series with the Big Red.
• Holcombe is the first Cornell reliever to pitch at least four scoreless innings since
Beck Urofsky (four innings) in the second game of a May 6 doubleheader against Dartmouth last season.
• Jensen's RBI triple was his third career three-bagger and his first since doing so against Brown on May 8, 2022.
• Johnson's multi-hit game was his first with the Big Red, while it was Quinlan's eighth career game with two-plus hits.
• Waugh extended his hit streak to nine games with his sixth-inning RBI single. With a hit in his next appearance, Waugh will be the first Cornell batter with a 10-game hit streak since Will Simoneit in 2019.
UP NEXT
Cornell and James Madison will conclude its three-game series from Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park on Sunday. Junior left-hander
William Jaun (1-0, 3.60 ERA) is scheduled to take the ball for the Big Red, while the Dukes will call Ryan Murphy (1-0, 5.19 ERA) to toe the rubber. No live video feed will be available, but Curt Dudley will be on the call over the airwaves on JMUSports.com.
