Baseball Post Series Wrap-Up: Cornell vs. Harvard

Cornell went up to Cambridge, Mass. this weekend hoping not just to compete with always-rival Harvard University, but to win both games. That would put them 5-1 in Ivy play and give them a great boost of confidence going into the big series against Dartmouth. In Game 1 it was quite the pitching duel  between Harvard’s Sam Dodge and Cornell’s Nick Busto. But, it was really all Nick Busto. Cornell put up their first run in the 3rd Inning on an RBI double by Matt Hall, but Harvard answered right back in the bottom half of the inning as they scratched across one with a sacrifice fly to even the score at 1. Just one inning later, a key hit came in the form of Connor McCabe, the starting left fielder now filling in for the injured Spencer Souza. After a double and a HBP, McCabe hit a towering double to the edge of the wall in straight-away left field, a drive that brought in both runners to make the score 3-1. Busto shut Harvard down from there, working out of trouble to finish off a complete game: 7 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 ER, and 7 K’s.

In Game 2, it continued to look as if Cornell was cruising. Although Harvard got across a run in the 1st, Cornell had a big inning in the 3rd scoring 3 runs, 2 of those runs off the bat of Chris Cruz who hit a towering home run into the parking lot in right field. Cornell was able to extend their lead to 7-3 by the bottom of the 5th after another 2 2-run innings, and T.J. Parthemer came into relieve for a struggling Brent Jones, and began to sail. But everything unraveled in the 7th. Parthemer walked the bases loaded and then let up two one-run singles. Eric Upton came in to stop the bleeding, but just wasn’t able to, and his defense didn’t help. Upton allowed a single and then a fielding error by Brenton Peters allowed the tying run to score. Upton then allowed a two-run single and another fielding error allowed the score to become 10-7 Harvard. Cornell developed a few opportunities in the 8th and 9th Innings but were unable to cash in and fell by that score. It was surely a crushing defeat for a team that seemed like it would easily secure two quick victories. Instead, they let that one inning get the better of them. The Big Red hope to turn it around today as they play the Big Green in Dartmouth in a doubleheader starting at 12 PM EST; the first game will be televised on Fox College Sports.

-Written By Matthew Provenzano