PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania softball team clinched its second-straight Ivy League series victory with a 7-6 walk off win over Cornell at Penn Park on Sunday.
Corrie Phillips came up with two runners on and two outs in the bottom of the seventh and hit the game winning home run to clinch the series victory. With the victory Penn improved to 9-19 while Cornell dropped to 6-13 overall on the season. The Quakers are 5-4 in Ivy play and Cornell falls to 2-4.
Penn 7, Cornell 6
Sarah Schneider opened the bottom of the first with her eighth home run of the season to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
Penn capitalized on a few miscues by the Cornell shortstop. After
Dana Anderson reached on a fielder's choice,
Emma Nedley would reach on almost the same exact play as the shortstop mishandled the ball and missed second base on back-to-back plays. As Nedley reached base,
Laurel McKelvey scored the second Penn run making it 2-0.
In the bottom of the second inning, Penn pushed another run across the plate as McKelvey hit an RBI base hit to score
Brianna Brown from second.
Bella Fiorentino made the start in the circle for the Quakers and allowed a pair of hits over the first two innings. The Big Red bats got to Fiorentino in the top of the third as the they opened the inning with three straight base hits and then a bases loaded walk with no outs got Cornell on the board.
Julia Longo came in in relief of Fiorentino and gave up a pair of base hits that allowed the Big Red to take a 4-3 lead.
Cornell added two more runs in the top of the seventh inning and to take a 6-3 lead.
The rain started falling in the bottom of the seventh as Brown opened with a base hit up the middle and McKelvey reached on fielding error by Cornell's shortstop. Fiorentino followed with a base hit up the middle to load the bases with no outs.
Dana Anderson flied out to center field for the first out, but she got the job done as Brown tagged up and scored the fourth Quaker run. Just like in the first inning, Nedley reached on a fielder's choice and brought the winning run to the plate.
With the rain coming down faster and harder, Phillips stepped up to the plate and with a 1-0 count she called the game as she hit her first home run of the season, a moonshot over the right field wall that scored Nedley and Fiorentino.
Quaker Notemeal
- Penn hit two more home runs on Sunday bringing its season total to 22. Sarah Schneider hit a solo shot in the first inning to open the scoring and then Corrie Phillips hit a walk off three-run homer to win the ball game. S. Schneider hit her eighth home run of the season and Phillips hit her first home run of the season.
- Brown and Fiorentino both went 2-for-4 at the plate as Brown scored two runs and Fiorentino scored a run on the walk off home run.
Up Next
Penn will host Villanova for a single game at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Penn Park.
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