On March 30, as most Cornell students dispersed for spring break, Cornell baseball instead embarked on a grueling stretch of nine games in 11 days.
Cornell’s record now sits 7-17 (2-7 Ivy) after dropping six of nine games since the beginning of spring break. With 15 games left in the season, 12 of which are against Ivy League opponents, there is time yet for the Red to turn things around.
The Red kicked off its “break” with a weekend series at Yale, where Cornell won one of three. The Red then returned to Ithaca for its home opener on April 2, where it edged St. Bonaventure 8 runs to 1. Cornell picked up another non-conference win on the road on April 3 versus Army. After a few days of rest, on Saturday and Sunday the Red suffered a sweep at the hands of Brown in the season’s first home Ivy series. Then, on Tuesday, Cornell hosted Binghamton, losing 8-4.
Of the many games in the past two weeks, game one of the Yale series, a 3-0 victory, was a bright spot for the Red. Junior RHP Colby Wyatt hurled 7 1/3 scoreless innings and junior RHPJohn Natoli got the final five outs of the game to earn his second save of the season.
The Red offense came alive to strike first in the top of the third inning. Junior infielder Matt Collins connected for a leadoff double, and junior infielder Alex Carnegie knocked him in with an RBI double.
In the top of the seventh, it was senior IF/OF Josh Arndt who got the ball rolling with a leadoff double. Immediately after, freshman infielder Justin Taylor’s sacrifice grounder advanced the runner, and during the next at-bat Ardnt was able to score on a wild pitch from Yale’s pitcher Scott Politz.
The ninth inning saw a similar explosive start from the Red: Arndt ripped another leadoff double, and up next Taylor hit an RBI single to center field. All of Cornell’s runs were scored by players who hit leadoff doubles and the Red beat Yale decisively 3-0.
Cornell’s home opener versus St. Bonaventure April 2 was also decided by stellar pitching and leadoff hits. Notably, freshman RHP Luke Yacinich threw for six scoreless innings and senior center fielder Adam Saks was 4 for 5 and scored twice for the Red.
Despite tallying 25 hits in three games against Brown, the Red had little to show for its efforts as Brown coasted to easy victories in two of the three games. Six errors in the series — including one that let in the unearned winning run in Cornell’s 2-1 loss — may have done the Red in.
Cornell will travel to Cambridge this weekend looking to get back on track in Ivy play against Harvard.