Over the weekend, the men’s baseball team competed in a three game series against Princeton, before going up against Binghamton on Tuesday for one game. After coming off an impressive series win against Yale and a comeback victory against Canisius College the week prior, the team hit a slump and won only one game out of the four.
In the three game set on the road against Princeton (4-21, 2-7 Ivy), the Red (7-15, 3-6 Ivy) dropped the first game, 3-12, won the middle game, 7-1, and lost the rubber match, 6-10.
While the Red scored first in game one, courtesy of a solo home run by freshman first-baseman Max Jensen, the Tigers put on an offensive barrage and scored nine unanswered runs to secure the win.
In the second game, starting pitcher junior Spencer Edwards had an impressive pitching performance to carry the Red to victory. He tossed a gem, conceding only 1 ER over eight innings, and striking out eight batters. The Red’s offense also broke out and scored seven runs, five off of Princeton starter Tom Chmielewski.
In the rubber match, Princeton jumped out to a quick three-run lead in the first inning, but the Red came back with six consecutive runs of its own to take a 6-3 lead by the third inning. However, the Tigers quickly responded with seven more runs by the end of the fifth inning to retake a 10-6 lead.
With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Cornell freshman reliever Chris Ellison came in and shut down the Princeton offense for the rest of the game, recording 0 ER over 3.1 innings. Unfortunately on the other side, Princeton’s reliever also gave up no runs over four innings to stifle the Red’s offense and secure a 2-1 series victory for the Tigers.
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On Tuesday, Cornell hit the road again for an evening matchup against Binghamton (8-19, 4-8). Despite solid pitching performances by six different relievers, the offense failed to generate consistent momentum. In the top of the fifth inning with no outs, two batters reached on defensive errors by the Bearcats, giving the team a chance to capitalize on its opponent’s mistakes and cut into the three run deficit. However, they were only able to get across one run via a double play ground ball by senior catcher Austin Flematti, bringing the score to 1-3.
Similarly, in the top of the eighth inning, the Red scored a run courtesy of a triple by Flematti followed by an RBI single by junior third-baseman Joe Hollerbach. The Red was down 2-5 with the bases loaded and no outs after two consecutive singles by sophomore catcher Nathan Waugh and first-baseman Jensen. However, only one run scored after another double play ground ball by junior second-baseman Ryan Ross, and the Red went on to lose the game 3-5.
Next, Cornell will look to bounce back as they travel to Philadelphia to face off against the University of Pennsylvania (19-8, 6-2 Ivy). They will compete in a double header on Saturday, April 16 with game one at 11:30 am and game two at 2:30 pm. The series finale will take place at noon on Sunday, April 17.