Cornell’s baseball team split its final two games at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex and concluded a successful spring break trip at 6-3, which included contests in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida.
Sean Alvarez homered, tripled and scored three times in Thursday’s 10-5 victory over Greenville, a game the Rams led 10-0 through 4 1/2 innings. The junior newcomer leaves the Sunshine State with a team-best .465 batting average.
Kale Rose connected for a solo home run, his second of the season. Esteban Perez went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs. Cade Parks doubled and drove in three. Alec Boldt also had a double and two RBIs.
Freshman Lucas Brutsche limited Greenville (4-11) to four hits and did not allow an earned run over 4.2 innings.
The Rams went back and forth with Stockton (7-7) in Friday’s finale, which saw Cornell lead 4-1 going into the eighth inning. Stockton struck four times in the top of the eighth and added two key insurance runs in the ninth.
Cornell rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to pull within 7-6. The Rams had the tying run on second base when the Ospreys escaped with a game-ending fielder’s choice.
Perez went 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs and an RBI. Alvarez delivered two hits and two RBIs from the leadoff spot. Rose and Vince Zipperer added one RBI apiece.
Starting pitcher Agustin Velazquez gave the Rams a quality six-inning start, yielding five hits and one run while fanning four.
Earlier in the week, the Rams took a 5-2 victory over UW-Stout and a 5-3 win over Rutgers Camden, but dropped a 7-6 battle to Farmingdale State.
Against UW-Stout, Kaleb Whaley notched his second pitching win in seven days, firing five near-flawless innings in relief. Whaley yielded just one single and struck out five while walking one.
Aiden Monce worked the final two innings to earn his first save of the season. He gave up one hit as the Rams lowered their team earned run average to 3.10 through 10 games.
The Rams delivered all the offense they needed during a three-run first frame. Hot-hitting Rose singled home Seth Beals for the first run, Perez recorded a sacrifice fly and Rose scored on a wild pitch to put Cornell ahead 3-0.
Cornell added two insurance runs in the eighth. Rose crossed on a UW-Stout error and Alec Boldt had an RBI single.
The Rams were held to four hits – singles by Rose, Boldt, Darren Mancke and Cade Parks.
Against Rutgers-Camden, the Rams had a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift Cornell’s baseball team to a 5-3 victory over Rutgers-Camden.
The Rams dropped a 7-6 see-saw battle in 10 innings to Farmingdale State Tuesday afternoon. Cornell (6-3 overall) moved to 3-1 on its Florida trip with three games remaining in the Sunshine State.
In Game 1, Rose went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, highlighted by the towering blast over the right-field fence that put Cornell ahead after trailing 3-1. The junior second baseman recorded an unassisted inning-ending double play in the top of the eighth and then came on to pitch the ninth, stranding two runners on base to notch his second save of the season.
Zipperer belted a solo homer for insurance in the bottom of the eighth. Leadoff man Beals doubled, singled and scored two runs.
Newcomer Cameron Anderson gave the Rams a strong start on the mound, allowing five hits and fanning nine over six scoreless innings against a Rutgers-Camden squad (8-4) that entered the day averaging nearly 8.0 runs per game.
Monce (1-0) earned the pitching win, working 1.1 scoreless innings in relief.
Mancke and Zipperer both collected two hits and one RBI against Farmingdale State (3-4). The Rams scored twice in the top of the ninth – on a double steal by Perez and Weaver that was aided by a Farmingdale State error – to take a 6-4 lead.
Farmingdale State extended the game with a two-run rally in the bottom of the ninth and then won it in the 10th on a one-out single into center field.
Alvarez doubled and scored one run. Parks and Rose each drove in a run.