This past Sunday, Cornell baseball competed in a double header against Georgetown University and University of Maryland, but dropped both games despite putting up a fight against their opponents.
In the Red’s (2-6, 0-0 Ivy) first game of the day against Georgetown (9-6), the Red jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead by the third inning. The lead quickly dissipated as the Hoyas rallied back, scoring the next seven runs. They led the game 7-3 by the bottom of the seventh inning.
Cornell did not go down easy. With only two outs to go, sophomore catcher Nathan Waugh started off a ninth inning rally off with a two-run home run, bringing the deficit to only two runs. After a strike-out by junior pinch-hitter Sam Kaplan, the Red was down to their final out of the game, but the team broke down, showed grit and strung together well at-bat to retake the lead.
Freshman shortstop Ryan Porter tripled to center, followed by a RBI single by freshman left-fielder Kyle Musser, cutting the score to 7-6. Next, junior right-fielder Elijiah Diaz walked, putting the go-ahead run on first base.
This brought the Red’s hottest hitter, junior third-baseman Joe Hollerbach, up to the plate. Hollerbach, who already hit a home run in the first inning and doubled in the eighth, hit a two-run double to left to retake an 8-7 lead for the Red.
“We showed good fight in the first game,” said Waugh. “It was an opportunity for the team to really show that we had some fight, come back, and take it to extra innings. We had a lot of guys come off the bench and put together really good at bats, just doing whatever they can to help the team win.”
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Unfortunately, the Red’s late ninth inning rally was not enough to secure the win. The Hoyas tied the score in the bottom of the ninth, courtesy of a home run by second-baseman Ethan Stern, and they walked it off in the bottom of the tenth with an RBI single.
“They’re just a quality baseball team, and we made some mistakes and I made some mistakes that contributed to us losing,” Waugh continued. “But, also, we played pretty well. I think we showed that that’s a team we can beat.”
In their second game of the day against No. 24 University of Maryland (13-3), the Red were shut down by the opposition’s strong starting pitching performance and unrelenting offense. Maryland’s starter Ryan Ramsey shut down Cornell’s offense, pitching six innings, dealing 13 strikeouts and giving up only one hit and three walks. The Terrapins were just as overpowering on the offensive side as well. They blew the game wide open in the fourth inning with eight runs, and had scored 11 unanswered runs by the fifth.
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One of the only offensive highlights for Cornell came courtesy of junior second-baseman Ryan Ross, who hit a grand slam in the top of the eighth inning, cutting the deficit to 11-5. Maryland would go on to score one more run in the bottom of the eighth, bringing the final score to 12-5.
“[Maryland] has a lot of talent,” Waugh said. “They have some really good arms, and we just couldn’t get it done I guess. Again, we played well. I think we showed good competitiveness against them, especially playing a big school, a big team like that.”
This coming weekend, the Red will look to bounce back in a three game series against University of Richmond (10-4).
“I think it’s just going to be about consistency,” Waugh said, on potential improvements the team could make. “We’ve shown to be a really good baseball team at times, and then at times it doesn’t show up.”
The team will hit the road to play in Richmond, Virginia, with both Friday and Saturday games scheduled for 1 p.m. and the third game scheduled for noon on Sunday.