La Salle Hands Baseball First Loss

On Saturday, the baseball team (2-1) suffered its first loss of the season to La Salle (4-3). Thanks to poor field conditions, the Red’s bid to earn a weekend split was cancelled. Cornell was scheduled to face Villanova (4-6) on Sunday, but the team could only fit one game into its weekend trip to Pennsylvania.
La Salle jumped on the Red early. Junior centerfielder John Malloy blasted a two-run home run off of Cornell junior Matt Hill in the first inning.
“It was a slider that was supposed to be located on the outside part of the plate, but stayed inside,” Hill said. “I knew he was a pull-type hitter, an inside hitter. We were trying to throw him outside, but one of the pitches I threw was inside. He was sitting on it and he made a good swing on it.”
Three batters later, La Salle rookie Jon Gyles added an RBI double. At the end of one inning, the Explorers held a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the second, the Red cut into the deficit with a bit of small ball. Cornell sophomore Mickey Brodsky walked to lead off the inning. He took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a balk. Junior Matt Langseth brought him home with a sacrifice fly.
Hill settled down for a stretch after the first. He did not allow a hit in the second, third, or fourth innings. At one point, he struck out three consecutive batters. The Red offense was unable to help his cause. While Cornell put several runners on base, its second inning run was its only score of the first seven innings.[img_assist|nid=35966|title=On the Hill|desc=Junior lefty Matt Hill took the loss for the Red against La Salle, allowing six runs on six hits.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
The Explorer offense struck again in the bottom of the fifth. Hill allowed three hits during the first four at-bats of the inning.
“It wasn’t one of my better performances. I felt like I didn’t give the team a chance to win, which is what I’m aiming to do every time I go out to the mound,” Hill said. “If I need to make one adjustment, I need to keep my fastball down like I did against Navy. I was throwing strikes, but I was leaving some of my fastballs up.”
With one run in and two men on base in the fifth, the Red summoned sophomore Taylor Wood from the bullpen. Wood allowed both runs to score, but prevented any further damage.
La Salle built its lead to 7-1 with an unearned run in the seventh. Cornell scored its only other run of the game in the eighth, when sophomore Jadd Schmeltzer doubled home senior Scott Hardinger. In total, Cornell managed only four hits in the game.
“[The Explorer pitchers] were around the plate a lot,” said senior Adam Jabobs, who had one of the hits. “We actually hit the ball pretty hard. We happened to hit it right at people. We didn’t find holes today.”
Junior David Rochefort came out of the bullpen to record six outs for the Red. He did not allow an earned run, but did allow an inherited runner to score. The final tally was La Salle 7, Cornell 2.