PHILADELPHIA — A three-run ninth inning capped by Nick Spaventa's two-out walk-off single turned a Cornell lead into a Penn victory Sunday afternoon, as the Quakers rallied from a 5-3 deficit to defeat the Big Red 6-5 and complete a three-game sweep at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium.

Cornell (6-20, 4-8 Ivy League) built a 5-2 advantage through three innings behind a productive early offense and five solid innings from senior right-handed starting pitcher Ethan Hamill, but Penn reliever Thomas Shurtleff's sweeper neutralized the Big Red lineup over six scoreless frames and left the door open for the Quakers' late comeback.

Trailing by two entering the ninth, Penn (14-15, 8-4 Ivy League) strung together a rally fueled as much by Cornell miscues as its own production. A leadoff double by Ernie Echevarria got things started before a pair of wild pitches proved decisive — the former scoring Echevarria and the latter advancing pinch runner Nick Guachione to third with the tying run. Jarrett Pokrovsky's sacrifice fly tied the game at 5-5 before Spaventa's two-out single through the left side plated Ryan Taylor with the winning run.

Cornell scored in each of its first three innings to build its lead. Junior third baseman Luke Johnson set the tone in the first, leading off with a single, stealing second and third, and scoring on an RBI groundout by junior second baseman Owen Carlson. Penn answered immediately when Taylor drew a five-pitch leadoff walk, stole second and third, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jay Secretarski.

The Big Red pushed ahead in the second on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Johnson and an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of junior shortstop Kevin Hager, though Penn trimmed the deficit to 3-2 on a sacrifice fly by Echevarria. Cornell broke it open in the third as the first three hitters reached on base hits, capped by senior first baseman TJ Swidorski's single that drove in senior center fielder Caden Wildman for his team-leading 15th RBI of the season.

From there, Shurtleff took over, entering to start the fourth and holding Cornell scoreless the rest of the way. He scattered four hits — two of which came on a one-out single by Hager and an opposite-field double by Carlson in the eighth that Shurtleff stranded — while striking out a career-high seven batters.

Hamill, meanwhile, gave Cornell a chance, retiring 10 of the final 12 batters he faced after the second inning and recording all three of his strikeouts in the fourth and fifth. He finished allowing two runs on two hits over five innings and walked four. Sophomore right-hander John Hegarty kept Penn at bay in relief, inducing inning-ending double plays in the sixth and seventh and stranding a two-out walk in the eighth before surrendering Echevarria's leadoff double in the ninth to begin the rally.

GAME NOTES
• Penn increased its lead in the all-time series to 173-129-2 and improved to 90-57-2 all-time in Philadelphia against Cornell.

• The Quakers' eight-game winning streak over the Big Red is tied for Penn's longest since an eight-game run between April 14, 2001, and April 26, 2003.

• Johnson's 11 stolen bases this season make him the second straight Cornell player to reach that mark. John Quinlan '25 also stole 11 in 2025, and Jakobi Davis '25 swiped 13 during the 2023 campaign — the third time in the last four years a Big Red player has reached 11-plus steals.

• Johnson, Carlson and Swidorski each had two hits apiece, serving as the lone Cornell trio with multi-hit games. Seven of Cornell's starters had at least one hit.

• Hegarty saw his scoreless streak snapped at 14 2/3 innings. Over his last six games, he has compiled a 1.10 ERA (16.1IP, 2ER), 0.67 WHIP (6H, 5BB) and has held opponents to a .120 batting average (6-for-50).

LOOKING ON DECK
Cornell returns home Tuesday, April 15, welcoming fellow Central New York rival Binghamton (14-13, 6-3 America East) to Booth Field for a 3:30 p.m. first pitch, live on ESPN+.

The Bearcats will arrive in Ithaca riding a seven-game winning streak after sweeping UMBC this weekend, capped by a 16-5 run-rule victory in eight innings over the Retrievers on Sunday.

The Big Red holds a 28-21-1 advantage in the all-time series but has not hosted the Bearcats since a 10-9 victory in 10 innings at Hoy Field on April 20, 2022. Each of the last six meetings has been held at the Bearcats Baseball Complex in Vestal, and the two programs are also scheduled to meet twice more there on April 21 and May 5.