PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania baseball team fought hard for a 6-5 series-opening victory over Cornell Saturday afternoon at Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium but settled for the split after falling 18-11 in the second game of the day.
 
Through their first 30 games of the season, the Quakers are 14-16 overall with a 6-5 record in Ivy League play, while the Big Red improve to an overall mark of 9-14 and 7-4 in the Ancient Eight, remaining in second place.

Quaker Notemeal
*Wyatt Henseler continued his incredible stretch, registering his fourth consecutive multi-hit game and seventh of his last eight games by going 2-for-4 in each contest, finishing the day 4-for-8 (.500) with a home run, four runs scored, and three RBIs.

*Henseler's RBI double in the eighth inning of Game 2 was the 200th hit of his career, becoming just the third member of the Penn baseball program to reach the plateau, tying himself with Sean Phelan '19 for second all-time. He needs just five hits to pass Dan Williams '11 for the program record (204).

*A trio of Quakers hit .500 for the day in Henseler (4-for-8), Ryan Taylor (4-for-8), and Carson Ozmer (3-for-6). Both Henseler and Taylor scored four times, while the latter drove in four runs. 

*A returning Connor Chavez upped his season-best hitting streak to 10 consecutive games after recording a base hit in both games and going 3-for-10 (.300) on the afternoon. He also extended his season-best reached-base streak to 24 games in a row. Henseler has now reached base safely in 15 straight games, Ozmer in 13 and Taylor 10.

*Cole Zaffiro (4-3) earned his fourth victory of the year after picking up the decision in Game 1. He struck out five batters over five innings of work, allowing the four first-inning runs before pitching four scoreless innings in a row for the remainder of his outing. Ozmer took home his fourth save of the year after tossing three innings of one-run ball, scattering four hits with five Ks and zero walks.

*The Game 2 starter, Ryan Dromboski (0-5), was saddled with his fifth defeat of the year despite one of his strongest outings, striking out nine batters with two walks in five innings of work. He allowed seven runs (five earned) on five hits in the start. Marshall Mott and Thomas Shurtleff both had scoreless innings of relief in the loss.

How It Happened (Game 1)
Cornell got off to a fast start, scoring four runs against Penn starter Cole Zaffiro.
 
Zaffiro settled in during the top of the second inning, striking out back-to-back batters to leave it a four-run contest.
 
With one out in the bottom half of the second, Ryan Taylor singled to left center field and Carson Ozmer followed suit with a single of his own. The third straight single tallied by the Quaker offense resulted in an RBI for Jarrett Pokrovsky, as Taylor scored to make it a 4-1 game.
 
Zaffiro recorded his second straight 1-2-3 inning in the third, bringing up Penn's heart of the order. Asa Wilson walked to lead off the game and Henseler also walked to put runners on first and second with one away. With two outs, Nick Spaventa's double to center field brought around Wilson to score and then Taylor walked to load the bases. Ozmer drove in Henseler to make it 4-3 and then a two-run single off the bat of Pokrovsky gave Penn the 5-4 edge.
 
It was another efficient inning out of Zaffiro to begin the fourth, retiring the side despite allowing two knocks to keep it a one-run game.
 
Henseler added a sixth run of the day for the Quakers on a solo home run—his 15th of the season—in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 6-4.
 
Zaffiro officially pitched the minimum after getting through the fifth inning without a run, striking out Matt Barnhorst to get out of the inning unscathed. Will Tobin continued the scoreless streak in the sixth inning with a strikeout.
 
The Big Red offense scored their first run of the game since the first inning in the seventh, registering three singles including an RBI knock off the bat of Mark Quatrani to make it a 6-5 game.
 
Carson Ozmer shut the door in the eighth and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth—capped by a wondrous 1-6-3 double play—to come away with the series-opening 6-5 win.
 
How It Happened (Game 2)
Like Cornell did to open the first game, Penn's offense answered the call and started fast to open the second with a three-run homer down the left-field line for Taylor. The Quakers took an early 3-0 lead.
In the blink of an eye, it became a tie game after the Big Red notched three runs in the second against Ryan Dromboski.
 
Dromboski settled in during the third, retiring the side in order on two strikeouts, as Penn re-rook the lead in the bottom of the inning on Ozmer's two-out RBI double toe right center field to go up, 4-3.
 
Dromboski retired seven Cornell batters in a row following another 1-2-3 fourth inning, striking out the side in order, the latter two swinging Ks.
 
In the top of the fifth, a sacrifice fly following a leadoff triple tied the game back up at 4-4, but the Quakers retaliated in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI double to right field for Taylor, scoring Henseler to make it a 5-4 ballgame.
 
Cornell began to blow the game open in the top of the sixth by batting around and scoring five runs to take a 9-5 lead, proceeding the score five more in the seventh following a grand slam for Caden Wildman as the Big Red headed to the bottom of the inning up 14-5.
 
In the eighth, Wildman came up to bat again with the bases loaded, unloading on a second consecutive grand slam off Edward Sarti to push Cornell ahead further, 18-5.
 
An RBI double for Wilson, an RBI single for Connor Chavez, and an RBI double to center field off the bat of Wyatt Henseler—the 200th hit of his career—brought runs No. 6, 7, and 8 in to score for the Quakers, trimming the Cornell lead down to 18-8.
 
Marshall Mott came in to pitch the ninth, retiring the Big Red in order as the Red and Blue came up for the final time in the bottom of the inning.
 
With one away, a Pokrovsky single through the right side of the field loaded the bases and Gavin Collins—the very next batter up—grounded out to the second baseman to bring home Drew Rogers to make it a nine-run game, Cornell leading 18-9. Chavez's RBI single with two away made it 18-10, then Henseler's bases-loaded walk brought home Pokrovsky to tack on the final run of the game as the Big Red took care of things with an 18-11 victory.
 
Up Next
Penn closes out the series with Cornell Sunday at noon from Tommy Lasorda Field at Meiklejohn Stadium in search of its third Ivy series victory of the season.
 
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