ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell softball (16-19, Ivy 6-12) travels to Cambridge, Mass. For its final Ivy League regular-season series, facing Harvard (23-11, Ivy 12-6) at Soldiers Field.
The series will start on Saturday with a doubleheader followed by the final game on Sunday. All five games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SERIES INFO
vs. Harvard
Saturday, May 3
12:30 p.m. / 2:30 p.m.
Live Stats || Watch
Sunday, May 4
12:30 p.m.
Live Stats || Watch
SCOUTING HARVARD
This will be the 73rd meeting between the Crimson and Big Red. Cornell took the opening game in the last series 10-6 before dropping the second two.
Harvard is 23-11 (.676) on the season with 12 conference wins in the Ivy League. The Crimson swept their last conference series against Dartmouth on the road this past weekend. Harvard is one of three teams tied at second in the Ivy League with a 12-6 record.
Sophie Sun and Alexa Muller are each hitting .400, tied for third best in the league. Sun is in the top five in the Ivys in four statistical categories: Hits (46), Runs Scored (31), Home Runs (7), Total Bases (73).
Harvard's pitching staff is second in the Ivy League with a low ERA of 3.18. In the circle, Nicolette Hunter has the best ERA with a 2.53 (2nd in Ivy) and 49 strikeouts over 83.0 innings.
Alexa Muller was named Rookie of the week after her performance against Dartmouth. Muller shined at the plate for the Crimson in the series against the Big Green, recording a team-best .667 batting average with four RBIs, two doubles and two triples. In the first game of the series, Muller had four hits, the most hits in a single game by Harvard.
100 CLUB WATCH
Emma Antich (91), Lauren Holt (93) and Sydney Stapf (88) are all less than 15 hits away from joining Harrod. Holt (99) and Antich (81) are also close to 100 career RBIs.
CORNELL IN THE IVY
Ella Harrod continues to anchor the defense, ranking 1st in Assists per Game at 2.31.
Lauren Holt is second in Home Runs (9), On Base Percentage (.483), Slugging Percentage (.705) and Walks Per Game (.74) compared to other Ivy players.
Kyrie Denny has pitched three shutouts, second most in the League.
Cornell has turned a total of 12 double plays, most in the conference.
IVY STANDINGS
Princeton (15-3) has been guaranteed a share of the Ivy League Regular Season Title and clinched a spot in the Ivy League tournament. Three teams (Brown, Harvard, Columbia) are tied for third with a 12-6 conference record. Each swept opponents over the weekend.
Brown has the lowest ERA (2.86) for pitchers led by Alexis Guevara with a 1.68 individually. Princeton has the best batting average of .317 with two batters in the top 10 individually: Karis Ford (.372) and Sonia Zhang (.382). Yale holds the best fielding percentage at .969 with 826 putouts over 45 games.
LAST WEEK RECAP
Cornell took a game off Binghamton in a midweek match up. Both teams started scoreless through the first two innings in the second game of the night as the Bearcats put the first run on the board.
At the top of the fourth, Sydney Stapf knocked her third home run of the season over the left field fence to score two and give Cornell its first lead of the day at 2-1. Samantha Albert got on base with a walk before she stole second then advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch to give Cornell the 3-1 advantage after five. Emma Antich made her way to third base in the seventh inning with Pressley on first. Pressley went to steal second as Antich took off for home to add one more in a close play at the plate.
Kyrie Denny pitched her seventh complete game to pick up her eighth win of the season from the circle.
Then in New York City, the Big Red fell in three games to Columbia. Columbia held Cornell to 13 hits over the three games with Ella Harrod leading the team with three hits and two RBIs. Hailey Pirkey, Addison Pressley and Ella Harrod each had multi-hit games.
The highlight of Game 2, The Big Red started the top of the second inning with two free base runners before Emma Antich would step up to the plate. Antich knocked a single out to left field to score Pirkey for Cornell's first run of the day. Addison Pressley added a single of her own to load up the bases followed by a two RBI single from Ella Harrod to right field to tie up the game 3-3.
Lauren Holt and Ella Harrod started the game off at the top of the first with two singles for the Big Red in the final game. Charlize Cai started a rally in the fifth inning with a double to left center followed by a walk from Susanna Pate to put runners on first and second. Holt slapped her second hit of the day over the left fielder for a two RBI double to keep the game alive. Columbia would end the game in the bottom of the fifth with two runs to take the game 10-2 in five innings.
