Cornell baseball threw down the gauntlet to open the 2019 season, but Baylor (7-0) posed an insurmountable opponent in the Red’s first weekend series of the year.
Cornell (0-3) traveled to Waco, Texas and suffered a 17-0 shutout on Friday, a 10-3 loss on Saturday and a 12-4 loss in Sunday’s finale.
Cornell tightened up its play for game two, but couldn’t answer the five runs scored by the Bears in the bottom of the second inning.
In game three, Cornell got on the board first with two runs in the top of the first inning, but was held scoreless until the eighth.
The Bears beat the Red by more than seven runs in all three games, whereas Cornell managed only seven runs combined over the weekend.
In game one on Friday, Cornell had just four hits against the Baylor pitching staff. Cornell rebounded on Saturday to score three runs off five hits. In the final game of the series, freshman Justin Taylor had two hits, sophomore Ramon Garza had a run-scoring double and senior catcher Will Simoneit had a double and a home run, good for two RBI.
Garza and Simoneit’s batting averages stand at .455 and .364, respectively, after three games.
While the scores reflect a tough outing for the Red, a bright spot for the young team was the depth showcased by middle-inning relief pitchers junior Colby Wyatt and freshman Jonathan Zacharias, who pitched 5.2 innings in game two and four innings in game three, respectively.
Cornell continues on the road for a three-game series starting March 1 against Virginia Commonwealth University (4-2), which is currently riding a three-game winning streak.