ITHACA, N.Y. – Colgate and Cornell split a pair of narrow decisions in non-league doubleheader action Wednesday afternoon at Niemand-Robison Softball Field. The Raiders rallied to take the opening game, 5-3, before falling to the Big Red in the nightcap, 9-8.
Colgate walloped five more home runs on the day, extending its streak of consecutive games with a home run to eight. During that stretch the Raiders have racked up a staggering 17 long balls, adding on to their program record of 63 round-trippers on the season.
Nora Megenity belted two homers, finishing with four hits, four runs scored, and three RBIs. Tealla Rivera, Lily Haluska, and Kayla Martin also homered and combined for seven RBIs. Analisa Raffaelli finished with a double, three walks, and three runs scored.
Kelcie McGraw allowed three earned runs on seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings to improve to 10-8 on the season. Maya Servedio locked down the save by tossing the final two outs of Game 1.
Game 1 | Colgate 5, Cornell 3
Cornell struck first with two runs in the opening inning and added another in the second to take a 3-1 lead after a sacrifice fly by Marina Taveras.
From there, McGraw settled in, allowing just one hit over the next four innings before turning things over to Servedio, who recorded the final two outs for the save.
Colgate chipped away offensively, highlighted by a two-run third inning after Martin roped a double to score Taveras and Raffaelli and knot the game at 3-3.
The Raiders took their first lead on a sacrifice fly by Megenity, scoring Mackenzie Lewis who tripled to the base of the wall in the fourth. Megenity provided the final strike, a solo blast in the seventh, bringing the game to its 5-3 final.
Game 2 | Cornell 9, Colgate 8
Megenity started things off with her second home run in as many at-bats. Cornell scored four times in the second to build a 5-1 lead.
Colgate jumped right back in it with two more homers in the fourth. Martin blasted a solo shot to center before Rivera drilled a two-run bomb off the top of the scoreboard. Haluska crushed a two-run homer in the fifth to cut the deficit to 7-6.
The one-run deficit remained until Colgate rallied in the seventh. Megenity led off with a single and later scored the tying run on a roped double to left field by Raffaelli. Two batters later, Raffaelli scored on a wild pitch to give the Raiders an 8-7 lead.
Cornell rallied with back-to-back two-out hits in the seventh, tying the game on an RBI double by Lauren Holt and winning 9-8 on a walk-off single by Emma Harshberger.
UP NEXT
Colgate (20-18, 7-2 PL) hosts first-place Boston University (30-11, 8-1 PL) for a three-game series starting with a doubleheader at noon on Saturday.
