ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell baseball team split its first two home games of the 2026 campaign on Sunday afternoon against Harvard at Booth Field, as the visiting Crimson won a 2-1 pitchers' duel before the Big Red took the nightcap 9-4.

The split leaves Cornell with a 4-14 overall record and 2-4 mark in Ivy League play. The results highlighted contrasting styles, as a tightly contested pitchers' duel in the opener gave way to an offensive showcase in the nightcap, with the Big Red plating nine runs in the second game — its second-most runs in a game this season. Harvard dropped to 3-15 overall and 2-4 in Ivy League play following the twin bill.

GAME ONE RECAP
Harvard's Jack Rickheim hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and lift the Crimson to a 2-1 victory over Cornell in the opener of Sunday's doubleheader.

Gio Colasante earned the win for Harvard, scattering four hits and allowing one run over eight innings. Brett Gable collected his second save of the year, retiring the final batter on a groundout after issuing a pair of two-out walks.

Junior left-hander Huxley Holcombe recorded Cornell's first quality start of the season, allowing just one run and one hit over six innings while issuing one walk and striking out a career-high seven batters. Freshman right-hander Ross Yoshida allowed one run and one hit in three innings of relief, despite taking the loss. Yoshida walked one and struck out five, with his only damage coming on Rickheim's go-ahead home run.

Holcombe retired the first nine batters he faced before Colasante — also Harvard's No. 3 hitter — drew a two-out walk in the fourth, becoming the first baserunner of the game.

Harvard opened the scoring in the fifth on a Liam Wilson two-out double that scored Max Lane, who had led off the inning by getting hit by a Holcombe pitch.

Cornell answered in the bottom of the fifth when sophomore catcher Mason Barela fouled off three consecutive pitches before connecting for his second home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1. Barela entered a four-way tie for the team lead in home runs.

Yoshida escaped a seventh-inning jam with a runner in scoring position and one out, striking out the next two batters. He then opened the eighth with a strikeout and flyout before Rickheim gave the Crimson the lead with his two-out home run to left-center.

Cornell threatened in the eighth as sophomore first baseman Jayden Shin led off with a double to the right-center gap. After freshman designated hitter Aiden Barclay sacrificed him to third, Colasante induced a groundout and a lineout to third to preserve the lead.

The Big Red mounted a two-out rally in the ninth as freshman right fielder Jake Hower and junior third baseman Luke Johnson drew consecutive walks to put the tying run on base, but Gable induced a game-ending groundout to secure the victory for Harvard.

GAME TWO RECAP
Cornell scored three runs in the first inning and never trailed again, cruising past Harvard, 9-4, in the nightcap of Sunday's doubleheader at Booth Field.

Junior third baseman Luke Johnson went 2-for-3 with a home run, three RBI and three runs scored to pace the Big Red (4-14, 2-4 Ivy League). Johnson, freshman right fielder Jake Hower and senior second baseman TJ Swidorski — Cornell's Nos. 5-7 hitters — combined to go 6-for-10, scored five of the team's nine runs and drove in all six RBI, while the rest of the lineup went 1-for-20.

Junior right-hander Ethan Van Sice allowed two runs on four hits over six innings in his second collegiate start, issuing one walk and striking out a career-high four batters for the second consecutive outing. Freshman right-hander Michael Tight and sophomore right-hander John Hegarty combined to allow two runs and four hits with three walks and three strikeouts over the final three frames.

Harvard's Luca Alagheband lasted two-plus innings, facing just 12 batters and yielding five runs on one hit with two walks and three strikeouts. Davis Kahn allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits in 4 1/3 innings of relief, while Brian Dowling worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Gio Colasante gave Harvard a first-inning lead with a one-out RBI single up the middle, but Cornell responded with three runs. After a walk and a hit batter put two on with two outs, a wild pitch advanced both runners to second and third. A wild pitch on ball four to Hower scored Hager, sending Wildman to third. Johnson then singled home Wildman, and Cornell extended the lead to 3-1 when Johnson stole second and Hower scored on a delayed steal of home.

Harvard trimmed the deficit to 3-2 on back-to-back doubles from Jack Rickheim and Matthew Witkow, but the Crimson would get no closer. Cornell plated three more in the third to lead 6-2, as Hager and Wildman were each hit by pitches to open the inning before Hower drove in one with an RBI single and Swidorski followed with a two-out, two-run single.

The Big Red pushed the lead to 7-2 in the fifth when Swidorski reached on an infield single and the shortstop's throw bounced all the way in front of Harvard's first-base dugout. Johnson, running on the pitch in an attempted steal of second, rounded third and scored on the error, with Swidorski advancing to second on an errant throw home to try and get Johnson.

A pair of RBI doubles in the seventh pulled Harvard to within 7-4 before Johnson answered with a two-run home run to close out the scoring.

GAME NOTES
• Harvard continues to lead the all-time series against Cornell, 116-62, following the pair of results. The Big Red have won six of the last 10 meetings against the Crimson.

• The three combined runs in the opener were the fewest combined runs scored in a game featuring Cornell since the Big Red lost 1-0 to Brown on April 8, 2023, the penultimate game played at Hoy Field.

• After losing last season's home opener, Cornell has dropped consecutive home openers for the first time since doing so in six consecutive seasons (2008-13).

• Cornell struck out 12 Harvard batters in the opening game, its highest strikeout total as a staff since also setting down 12 batters at Richmond on Feb. 28. It is the Big Red's fourth game with 10-plus strikeouts this season.

• After swiping a career-high two bases last Sunday against Princeton, Johnson stole three bases in the nightcap, serving as Cornell's first player with three stolen bases since Ryan Porter '25, in the opening game of an April 22, 2023, doubleheader against Princeton — the first-ever game at Booth Field.

UP NEXT
Cornell and Harvard will play the rubber match of their three-game series on Monday, March 30, at Booth Field. First pitch is scheduled for noon with game action streamed live on ESPN+. Senior right-handed pitcher Ethan Hamill (0-1, 4.50 ERA) is scheduled to toe the rubber for the Big Red.