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Cornell University Athletics

Lilly Travieso celebrates with teammates

Softball To Honor Seniors As It Finishes Home Slate Against Harvard

4/25/2024 3:27:00 PM

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell softball team (6-24, 3-12) will honor its seniors and wrap up its 2024 home slate when it hosts Harvard (22-14, 12-6 Ivy) this weekend, April 27-28, at Niemand-Robison Field. The teams are slated for a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m. The series finale will begin at 12:30 p.m. Sunday. ESPN+ will stream all three games live. 

Senior Day

  • Cornell will honor seniors Lilly Travieso and Marisa Zorrilla before Sunday's series finale. 

  • A second-team All-Ivy performer in 2022, Travieso has played in 88 games with 86 starts over four seasons at Cornell. She has a career .266 batting average and has driven in 23 runs. 

  • Travieso has been steady at third base with a career .942 fielding percentage. 

  • Zorrilla has played in 99 games with 91 starts in her Big Red career. She has a .946 fielding percentage and has made just nine errors.  

Travieso Visits White House, VP

  • Senior infielder Lilly Travieso spoke at Vice President Kamala Harris' Women in Sports Celebration on March 27. The event, in collaboration with the Women in Sports Foundation, was part of Women's History Month.

  • In her address, Travieso detailed her story as a Latina athlete and her work with the ELLA Sports Foundation, which she founded with help from her mother, Patty, as a senior in high school. ELLA, which stands for Empowering Leadership in Latina Athletes, is a non-profit organization that provides academic and athletic support to young Latina athletes.

  • Travieso visited the White House in October for First Lady Jill Biden's first-ever Girls Leading Change event. 

Harrod Having An Impressive Sophomore Season 

  • Sophomore Ella Harrod is batting .450 over Cornell's last 12 games (18-for-40). She's driven in seven runs in that span. 

  • Harrod, who's played in 29 of Cornell's 30 games, has struck out just once in 91 at-bats this season (against Siena on Feb. 24). She has gone 26 straight games without one. 

  • Only three other players in the country — Emily Bracamonte (Toledo, 98 at-bats), Aglaia Rudd (Purdue Fort Wayne, 99 at-bats) and Mari Barbato (Toledo, 85 at-bats) — have one strikeout this season. 

  • Harrod has struck out just five times going back to Cornell's loss to Princeton on April 16 last season. She went the last six games of last season without a strikeout. 

  • Harrod is one of three Ivy League players who hasn't struck out in a conference game this season (min. 20 at-bats). The others are Sophia Marsalo (Princeton) and Caitlin Bish (Princeton). 

  • Harrod leads Cornell in batting average (.341) and hits (31) and is second in doubles (7). She has driven in 14 runs, the third-most on the team. 

  • Harrod has six successful sacrifice bunts this season, the most in the Ivy League. 

  • She leads Cornell in stolen bases (6). 

  • Harrod's batting average this season is 132 points higher this season (.341) than last season (.209).

  • Harrod hit her first career home run at Penn on March 22. 

  • The Big Red shortstop has 80 defensive assists, the most on the team. She has helped turn seven double plays. 

Holt Already Climbing The Cornell Record Book

  • Not even two full seasons into her Cornell career, sophomore power hitter Lauren Holt is climbing the program's record book. 

  • Holt hit her 18th collegiate home run last weekend against Dartmouth, moving into a tie for 12th in Cornell history in career home runs. Melissa Heintz (2002-04) and Alyson Inhitar (2007-10) hit 18 in their careers. 

  • With five RBI over three games against Dartmouth, Holt became the first Cornell player to reach 40 RBI in a season since Elise Menaker had 52 in 2010. 

  • Holt is one of nine Cornell players to drive in 40 or more runs in a season. The others are Menaker (52 in 2010, 47 in 2009 and 55 in 2008), Ashley Garvey (62 in 2009), Jessy Berkey (45 in 2009), Jenna Campagnolo (51 in 2008), Inhitar (41 in 2007), Lauren May (45 in 2005, 56 in 2004 and 52 in 2002), Heintz (47 in 2004), Allison Batten (40 in 2001 and 44 in 1998). 

  • With three more home runs this season, Holt would move into ninth place in program history. Lauren May (2002-05) holds the program record with 58 home runs; Varde (2001-04) and Menaker (2007-10) hit 37 in their careers, good for second place. Berkey (31 from 2006-09) and Jenny Edwards (26 from 2011-14) are third and fourth on the list, respectively. 

  • Holt, who's driven in 62 runs in her career, needs 13 more RBI to enter the top 20 in Cornell history in that category. 

More Impressive Numbers On Holt:

  • Holt leads the Ivy League in RBI (40) and is tied for the lead in home runs (9). Cami Neal (Columbia) and Savanna Messner (Columbia) also have nine homers. 

  • Holt has driven in multiple runs in 11 games this season. 

  • Holt's six RBI against Middle Tennessee are the most by an Ivy League player in a game this season. 

  • Holt won Ivy League Player of the Week for the first time in her collegiate career after driving in runs in bunches at the Spring Games in Madeira Beach, Florida. Over five games, she had two doubles, three homers, nine total hits in 17 at-bats and 14 of Cornell's 32 RBI.

  • The 2023 second-team All-Ivy performer led the Ivy League with nine homers and finished tied for third in RBI (28) as a freshman last season. 

  • Only six other players in Cornell history have led the Big Red in RBI and homers as freshmen. That list includes Stephanie Riggins (4 HR, 17 RBI in 1995), Allison Batten (8 HR, 44 RBI in 1998), Lauren May (16 HR, 52 RBI in 2002), Meg Risica (8 HR, 30 RBI in 2006), Alyson Inhitar (11 HR and 41 RBI in 2007) and Bridgette Rooney (10 HR, 30 RBI in 2017). 

History vs. Harvard

  • Cornell is 30-39 all-time against Harvard. The series began in 1994

  • Cornell is 15-16 at home against Harvard. 

  • Cornell took two of three games in last year's series.

  • Harvard has won six of the last nine in the series.

Scouting Harvard

  • Harvard can clinch a share of the Ivy title with three wins AND at least two Princeton losses this weekend. It can also clinch a share with at least two wins AND Yale loses at least one game AND Princeton loses three games. 

  • The Crimson can win the Ivy outright with three wins AND Princeton loses three games AND Yale loses at least one game. 

  • Freshman Sophie Sun leads the Ivy in batting average (.434), slugging (.488), hits (46), doubles (12) and total bases (83). She's second in on-base percentage (.488), runs scored (29), RBI (29) and home runs (7). 

  • Harvard won the Ivy League title last season. 

  • Pitcher Nicolette Hunter leads the Ivy in ERA (1.80). Anna Reed is second (2.31).

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