NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Cornell softball sophomore Lauren Holt homered again, but the Big Red fell 4-2 in the first game of its three-game road series against the Yale Bulldogs on Friday afternoon at 5k Corral Field at Dewitt Family Stadium.
The Big Red fell to 4-17 overall and 2-5 in the Ivy League, while the Bulldogs moved to 12-20 overall and 7-3 in the Ivy. Emma Taylor earned her league-leading ninth victory in the circle.
Cornell starting pitcher Maddie Covelli got into trouble early, walking the first three batters she faced in the bottom of the first before Kyrie Denny entered the game in relief. Lauren Perren, the first batter Denny faced, ripped a bases-clearing double to center to put Yale ahead 3-0.
Denny, who pitched six innings, settled in and kept the Big Red in the game after that. She pitched six innings and kept the Bulldogs off the board in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings. Yale added an insurance run in the fifth on Carmen Muscolina's single that scored Sophie Woodridge.
The Big Red, which had five hits and no walks in the game, struggled to get much of anything going offensively until the sixth. Sophomore Ella Harrod singled to start that inning, and Holt followed with a two-run homer on the next pitch to cut Yale's lead in half.
Holt, who's now homered in two straight games, regained the Ivy League lead in homers with her seventh of the season. She entered the game tied with Harvard's Sophie Sun (6).
A second-team All-Ivy performer as a freshman last season, Holt has already surpassed her 2023 total in RBI (28) and leads the Ivy in that category (29). She's just two home runs shy of her total from last year (9).
Cornell and Yale have a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m. ESPN+ will steam both games live.
