After a convincing 5-2 victory in game one of Saturday's doubleheader at Meiklejohn Stadium, Penn seemed to be rolling.
The Quakers had weathered the excessive rain delay, and after taking a 6-1 lead in the first three innings of game two, they looked to be on their way to an easy sweep.
But about 16 hours later, Cornell walked off the field with a victory: a 10-inning, 10-8 win that salvaged a split for the Big Red.
With the score tied 6-6 after eight innings, game two was called due to darkness, leaving the end undecided until yesterday.
"They were down and out after the first game," said Todd Roth, who picked up the loss yesterday after pitching the final two innings. "Then we kind of gave them a chance in the second one by letting them back in the game, and then not finishing them off again this morning."
While the hiatus could have taken the wind out of the sails of Cornell, who had been in the middle of a steady comeback, Penn was the team that came out flat when the game resumed.
Roth gave up four runs - all unearned - after three errors on the Penn infield in the tenth inning.
However, Cornell made it interesting in the bottom half of the inning. An error by Cornell center fielder Ry Kagan allowed a Penn run to score and put runners on second and third with nobody out. That brought the tying run to the plate, but Cornell reliever Walker Toma got out of the jam.
Right from the beginning, the omens didn't go Penn's way.
Second baseman Steve Gable had his 19-game hitting streak snapped in game one, and freshman starter Sam Gilbert gave up four earned runs after going 16.1 consecutive scoreless innings.
While Cornell hit the ball hard in game one, its offense - led by designated hitter Kyle Groth and shortstop Scott Hardinger - started to produce against Gilbert in game two.
Groth's three-run homer in the fourth brought his team within striking distance, and Hardinger came through in a big way with a 3-for-5 day and a two-run single in the 10th.
Freshman pitcher Jeremy Maas, who picked up the win in game one but left the game after tweaking his elbow, wasn't expecting performances like that.
"They weren't as bad as I thought they were gonna be," he said on Saturday.
But when it was all said and done, Cornell might have said just the opposite of the Quakers.
