The good news for the Red baseball team is that it controls its own destiny in the race for the Gehrig division title. The bad news is that the Red will have to sweep Princeton and then win a makeup contest with Columbia (12-23, 8-11 Ivy) to win the Gehrig division and have a shot at the school’s first Ivy title since 1977.
The road to the title got tougher this weekend as the Red dropped two of three games with the Lions.
Cornell started strong as it took the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader behind senior Dan Baysinger’s complete-game shutout.
Baysinger, who had at least one strikeout in each of the game’s seven innings, allowed just one runner past first base the entire game and had a no-hitter going until Ryan Schmidt’s single in the fifth inning.
In his seven innings of work, Baysinger gave up just three hits, while striking out nine to earn his first victory of the season. He currently leads the Red with a 3.47 earned run average.
“[Dan] was getting ahead of hitters and was consistent all day long,” said senior co-captain Dan Parant.
While Columbia’s hitters failed to find their stroke, the Red lineup was solid, knocking in five runs on six hits. The Red’s scoring began with four unearned runs in the second inning.
Senior Ned VanAllan, who started the inning off with a walk, reached third on Columbia second baseman Jorge Livermore’s error on a ground ball off the bat of Parant. Parant wasted no time at first base, promptly stealing second, and enabling VanAllan to score on the throw.
Parant went to third on another Columbia error, and came around to score on sophomore Seth Gordon’s base hit to give the Red a 2-0 lead.
The Red went up 4-0 when junior Matt Miller scored Gordon and senior David Bredhoff on a two-out double.
The Red tacked on its fifth run in the bottom of the fifth inning when freshman Kaleb Hutchinson drove in sophomore William Pauly, who reached base on the third Columbia error.
Columbia pitcher Brian Doveala went the distance, giving up six hits and five earned runs in his six innings of work to fall to 2-5 on the season. Doveala walked three Cornell hitters and struck out five.
Hutchinson led the Red’s offensive attack with two hits in three at bats while tallying his 13th RBI of the season.
Columbia came away with a split of the doubleheader after it won the second game of the day, 5-4.
The Lions built a 5-1 lead on Red senior Luke Staskal, who gave up five runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings to fall to 1-4 on the season. The big blows for the Lions were a two-run home run by Ray Waters in the top of the fourth inning and a solo shot by Michael DeFazio. Waters, Columbia’s lead-off man, was the catalyst for the Lions as he went 1-for-2 with two RBIs, two runs scored, and two walks.
Sophomore Michael Hudson kept the lead at four by pitching 2 1/3 innings of no-hit ball with one strikeout.
VanAllan began the Red’s rally in the bottom of the ninth with a single, and moved to second on a passed ball. After Parant reached base on an error, junior Conor Kelly walked to load the bases. VanAllan scored on a wild pitch and a Bredhoff single scored Parant and Kelly.
Sophomore Seth Gordon’s single put runners on first and second, but the Lions ended the rally with a double-play on a line drive from Miller.
Despite the scheduled doubleheader yesterday, the teams were only able to play one game due to inclement weather.
The first game, which had a 40-minute rain delay, ended with a 3-0 score in favor of the Lions. Junior Tad Bardenwerper started the game after sophomore Rocky Collis re-aggrevated a groin injury and was unable to start. Bardenwerper struck out eight batters and walked three, while giving up three runs on four hits in 6 2/3 innings. Bardenwerper, who suffered the loss to fall to 1-4 on the season, was replaced by senior Sam Sinkavich after the rain delay. Sinkavich recorded a walk and a strikeout in 1/3 of an inning.
The Red offense never got going in the game as the lineup managed just four hits off of Columbia starter Jessen Grant, who threw the complete-game shutout.
Pauly, Hutchinson, Bredhoff, and senior co-captain Jon Finch all tallied singles but none was able to score. The Red left seven runners on base in its second loss of the weekend.
Before its four-game set with Princeton this weekend, the Red will play a pair with Siena at Hoy Field Wednesday afternoon. The Red, which is 10-25 overall and 5-10 against the Ivy League, will need a sweep of the Tigers this coming weekend to have a shot at the division title.
Archived article by Chris Mascaro
Sun Assistant Sports Editor