ITHACA, N.Y. — Freshman right-handed pitcher
Ross Yoshida fired 5 1/3 hitless, scoreless innings of relief to register his first collegiate victory as the Cornell baseball team defeated Ivy League-leading Yale 5-3 on Friday afternoon at Booth Field.
Concluding his outing with six strikeouts — matching his season high — and issuing a walk and hitting two batters, Yoshida retired the last 11 batters he faced after hitting Chace Chaplin with a pitch to open the sixth inning. Outside of Chaplin, Yoshida hit the first batter he faced and was charged with a walk in the fifth after a pitch-clock violation on a 3-1 count to Jackson Hays.
Offensively, Cornell (7-21, 5-8 Ivy League) was led by senior center fielder
Caden Wildman and senior shortstop
TJ Swidorski, who each had two RBI. Wildman, junior third baseman
Luke Johnson and freshman right fielder
Jake Hower all had two hits, and freshman designated hitter
Trent Lopez hit his second home run in as many games.
Yale (20-11, 9-4 Ivy League) and Cornell traded runs in the first inning as Chris DiPrima opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly, only to be countered by a one-out, two-run single down the left-field line by Swidorski.
A two-run third inning gave the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead as DiPrima drew a bases-loaded hit by pitch and Jack Dauer's sacrifice fly plated another.
Lopez's leadoff home run tied the game in the fourth and Wildman followed with an RBI single back up the middle in the fifth to put Cornell ahead. The Big Red center fielder added another run on a fielder's choice in the seventh after Yale catcher Owen Turner could not handle Colin Sloan's throw attempting to retire Johnson at the plate.
GAME NOTES
• Cornell trimmed Yale's lead in the all-time series to 113-83, while improving to 3-1 all-time at Booth Field against the Bulldogs. The Big Red are 9-4 in their last 14 games against Yale and have won the series opener in six consecutive seasons (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
• Yoshida became the first Cornell pitcher to toss five or more scoreless innings of relief since
Huxley Holcombe against Harvard on April 6, 2024.
• The six strikeouts by Yoshida matched his season high, set in his collegiate debut against Boston College on Feb. 20 in Spartanburg, S.C. It is his fifth outing with strikeout totals matching or exceeding his innings pitched.
• Yoshida became the 16th Cornell freshman to reach 30 strikeouts in a season and is currently the second player to accomplish the feat without making a single start. Current senior right-hander
Carson Mayfield was the first to do so, having 38 punchouts across 18 relief outings in 2023.
• Swidorski's two-run single in the first increased his team-leading season RBI total to 19, with 17 of those coming over his last 16 games — six of which have seen him posting multiple RBI.
LOOKING ON DECK
Cornell and Yale will return to Booth Field to conclude the three-game weekend series with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 18. First pitch between the Big Red and Bulldogs is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+, though live stats will be unavailable for the first game.
With a win Saturday, the Big Red will secure its fifth consecutive series victory over the Bulldogs, which would be the longest streak in program history.
