Big Red light halts title hopes

Yesterday's early triumph in the resumed game saw the visiting Cornell Big Red undergo a visible transformation in the second doubleheader.

All of a sudden, a team that hadn't been hitting hit. A team that hadn't been pitching pitched. And most importantly, a Cornell team that hadn't been winning grabbed a pair of convincing victories - 8-1 and 16-5 - to leave the Quakers stunned at Meiklejohn Stadium.

"They just got confidence [from the first win] and they just kind of rolled with that," said sophomore captain Todd Roth, who picked up the loss in the first scheduled game of the day. "We kind of just didn't want to go after it because it was going to be too hard for us. We just kind of folded."

Penn coach John Cole declined to comment after the games.

Game 1: Cornell 8, Penn 1

The Red and Blue (13-15, 4-7 Ivy) figured to right the ship after the morning's disappointment with ace Todd Roth taking the mound. The sophomore entered the game leading the team in strikeouts (37) and posting a 1.76 earned run average.

The Big Red (10-17, 4-8) jumped on him early, though, scoring two runs in the first inning on two doubles, a walk and a wild pitch. After escaping the second by stranding three runners, Roth managed to settle down for a couple of innings.

But without his best stuff or the necessary run support, the right-hander didn't make it past the sixth. A walk and a bunt single to third to begin the inning prompted Cole to yank Roth in favor of lefty reliever Tom Grandieri.

Cornell would plate four that inning, then two in the next, to saddle Roth with the loss and drop him to 4-3.

"Sometimes I like to fall behind if I'm pitching because I know my guys will get that sense of urgency and they start swinging those bats a little more, get a little more aggressive," Roth said. "But today it didn't work out that way and the guys didn't show up."

Cornell pitcher Matt Hill (5-2) certainly had a hand in that. Hill, who came in with a modest 4.46 ERA, carried a no-hitter into the fifth before Penn's Dan Williams broke it up with a solo homer. That was the only blemish on Hill's superb outing, however; the sophomore went the distance while allowing just four hits and striking out eight.

Game 2: Cornell 16, Penn 5

The Big Red carried their hot bats over to the weekend's final game, putting this one out of reach after just two innings.

Freshman starter Paul Cusick (0-3), who had been giving the Quakers solid innings, lasted just 1.2 in the face of Cornell's onslaught. He surrendered 10 runs (eight earned) before anyone at Meiklejohn Stadium had even blinked.

It was his control that let him down in this one. Although he allowed four hits, he handed out seven free passes on five walks and two hit batsmen.

After a five-run first inning for the visitors, Cusick appeared like he might have settled down when he retired the first two batters of the second with ease.

Then the floodgates opened.

Ten straight Cornell batters reached base in the eight-run inning, all with two down. John D'Agostini came on for Cusick after the freshman had walked three, hit one batter and surrendered a double to another. The senior reliever couldn't find a groove, either, with all four of his batters-faced reaching base.

Finally, Anthony Aruffo came on and got Kyle Groth to fly out and end the inning. His solid relief outing (5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER) was overshadowed, however, as the contest was all but decided by the time he reached the mound.

Cornell senior Brian Kaufman, who came in batting just .102, feasted on Penn pitching to have a career day. He hit two home runs to finish 3-for-6 with four runs batted in and three runs.

After the disappointing weekend, Penn now finds itself at 4-7 in league, 3.5 games back of Columbia in the Gehrig division.

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