By April 10, 2006
You can’t win if you don’t score runs – and for the Red (5-15, 1-5 Ivy), it was just one of those days as the team was swept at Yale (16-11, 5-1) yesterday in an afternoon doubleheader, 7-0 and 5-4 in extra innings. After rain pushed Ivy play back a day, the Cornell offense looked sluggish as it collected only 10 hits on the day, including just three in Game 1’s shutout loss.
“First game we just didn’t swing the bats,” said head coach Tom Ford. “[Senior] Rocky Collis really battled but we just let him out to dry. Game 2 we got ahead early and they shut us down the second half of the game.”
Collis was a one-man army in the first game of what turned out to be a lopsided pitchers duel against Yale. The Santa Monica, Calif., native received the loss, surrendering four earned runs on 10 hits while going the distance on the afternoon. Yale second baseman P.J. Gorynski was a thorn in Collis’ side, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.
“[Collis] kept us in the game there until the last inning,” Ford said. “Then it was 5-0, and he started to falter just a little. Still, he pitched well enough for the first five innings that if we would have scored some runs we would have won the ballgame.”
Bulldog pitcher Alec Smith quieted the Red offense, picking up his second win of the season after allowing only three hits in six innings of work. The Red batters couldn’t muster any momentum, striking out eight times in 22 at-bats.
Freshman Brant McKown, senior Michael Weiss and freshman Scott Hardinger were the only Cornell players to receive hits in the contest, with McKown and Weiss both collecting doubles.
Game 2 of the doubleheader scripted a much different story compared to Game 1, as the Red lost a nail-biter by a score of 5-4 in extra innings. Cornell jumped out to a 4-0 lead but couldn’t hold on for the victory, eventually losing thanks to a game-winning single off the bat of Yale’s Peter Obregon.
Sophomore Bryce Klinesteker got the nod for Cornell and went 6 2/3 innings, striking out five Yale batters in the process. Freshman Chris Carls came on in relief and went 2 2/3 innings before receiving the loss in the bottom of the 10th.
“Bryce pitched well and then we had Chris Carls come in,” Ford said. “Chris really shut them down the next couple of innings. It was really a good ballgame.”
Yale pitchers John Henry Davis and Matt Fealey came out of the bullpen to stop the Cornell offense, as both combined in allowing only three hits in six innings of work. Fealey improved to 3-0 on the year after earning the win.
Senior Seth Gordon went two-for-five in the second contest between the two teams while Hardinger also added two hits for the Red.
Cornell grabbed the lead early after scoring four runs in five innings. Sophomore Brian Kaufman scored the Red’s first run of the contest by way of the sacrifice fly in the top of the first. Freshman Nathan Ford added a double in the fourth inning to extend the Red’s lead to 2-0, and McKown then added a two-RBI double of his own in the fifth to give the Red a 4-0 lead going into the bottom half of the inning.
Yale rallied for a single run in the sixth and eventually tied the score after a three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh, sending the game into extra innings. The rally was highlighted by a two-out triple from Yale’s Dan Soltman that knocked Klinesteker out of the game. Cornell looked like it would get out of the inning with a double play, but the call didn’t go the Red’s way, prolonging the inning.
“It was a close call,” Ford said. “Obviously we didn’t get the call and, as usually is the case, the next guy got a hit. That is usually what happens when things aren’t going your way.”
After the teams went scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings, Yale cemented the victory in the bottom of the 10th after Marc Sawyer opened the frame with a double. Sawyer advanced to third on John Janco’s single and after an intentional walk and a strikeout, Obregon singled home the game-winner on a one-ball, one-strike pitch from Carls.
With the rain delay from Saturday pushing the Ivy slate back one day, the Red will face Brown (5-13, 5-1) today in Providence, R.I., at Aldrich Field. Brown swept Princeton (4-18-1, 0-6) yesterday, winning Game 2 in extra innings after freshman Matt Nuzzo scored off a wild pitch.
By April 10, 2006
Recovering from a tough loss at Princeton a week ago, the No. 11 women’s lacrosse team remained in the hunt for an Ivy League title as the Red knocked off No. 15 Dartmouth, 13-8, at Schollekopf Field on Saturday, earning its second win over the Green (6-4, 2-2 Ivy) in the two teams’ last 15 meetings.
“We played really well,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “We were very pleased with the outcome. It was an excellent team effort – a huge improvement over last week.”
Sophomore Courtney Farrell had a career day for the Red (7-2, 3-1), posting our goals while also adding three assists to lead the attack.
“She had a great day on the attacking end,” Graap said.
However, even with Farrell’s dominance, there was a whole cast of fellow contributors as the Cornell offense again showed off its impressive depth. Eight different players scored goals for the Red, while a total of six players had two or more points for home team.
“That was my favorite part of the win,” Graap said. “Everybody played a part in the win – we had such a diversity of people making contributions. Also, I think it was the most assists we’ve had all year.”
Meanwhile, Cornell goalie Maggie Fava was solid in net as Dartmouth – an NCAA Final Four particpant a year ago – made several comeback attempts. In the end, the senior made 11 saves, including four on Dartmouth free-position attempts, to preserve the Red victory.
“Fava was pretty awesome in net,” Graap said.
Never trailing at any point in the contest, Cornell got on the board first as senior captain Allison Schindler opened up the scoring a little over eight minutes into the game. Though the Green went on to tie the score at 1-1 at the 16:29 mark, the Red used a 5-0 run – with five different goal scorers – to work its way to 6-2 halftime advantage.
After scoring the first two goals of second half, Dartmouth cut the lead to 6-4 with 26:15 to play. However, Cornell would extend the lead back to four on goals by Schindler and sophomore Noelle Dowd.
Meanwhile, assisting on both those goals, Farrell picked up the first two of the five total points she would tally in the second half.
Refusing to go away quietly, the Green cut the Red lead to 8-6 on a pair of goals just 22 seconds apart. Again, though, Cornell responded positively to the challenge as it used a 4-0 run to put Dartmouth out off striking distance.
“It was pretty huge being able to respond to the Dartmouth pressure like that coming off last week’s game,” Graap said. “Against Princeton, we let them score seven or eight goals in a row – we didn’t respond well when the other team went on a run. Here, we were able to come right back.”
Junior captain Margaux Viola, who was recently named to the watch list for the Tewaaraton Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s top player, put together another strong performance with a goal and two assists.
Along with Farrell, Viola and Schindler, sophomores Charlotte Schmidlapp and Katherine Simmons, and junior Alison McKeown were the other multiple point scorers for the Red.
On the other side of the field, the Green attack was led by Casey Hazel and Sarah Szefi, who each notched two goals and an assist. Dartmouth goalie Devon Willis had six saves in the losing effort.
The Cornell victory moves the Red into a tie for second, just a half game behind Princeton in the Ivy League standings. Meanwhile, the loss drops the Green into a fourth-place with three games to go in its Ivy schedule.