ITHACA – After the Syracuse softball team was swept by Cornell in a doubleheader yesterday, head coach Mary Jo Firnbach gathered her team in the outfield of Niemand-Robinson Field. Firnbach paced up and down the length of a dejected team huddle with her arms flailing. Her body language perfectly described the kind of day it was for the Orangewomen.

Syracuse lost two close games to Cornell, 7-6 and 4-3. Each defeat came in the bottom frame of the seventh inning.

Timely hitting for Cornell (29-11, 6-4 Ivy) coupled with inconsistent pitching and defense for Syracuse (18-20, 2-4 Big East) ultimately led to the Big Red sweep.

In the first game, freshman Courtney Mosch (12-11) gave up two singles and hit a batter to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh. Cornell’s next batter, Melissa Heintz, hit a liner that dropped in front of rightfielder Tiffany Robinson. Robinson misplayed the ball, allowing three runners to score and giving Cornell the first game.

‘(I wouldn’t rate my performance) very high,’ Mosch said. ‘Out of 10, I would say a three. (I need) to make better adjustments earlier. I need to recognize what batters’ weaknesses are before the seventh inning. It was more not wanting to give up a hit or a bomb.’

The second game was more of a defensive battle, but the Syracuse defense became shaky just as Cornell’s bats awoke.

In the bottom of the seventh in a game tied at 3, Haley Larsen easily fielded a ball hit by Cornell’s Erin Kizer, but Larsen’s throw to first base was in the dirt. A sacrifice bunt then advanced Kizer to second base. SU was faced with runners at first and third after a low liner hit by Kate Varde dropped in front of Robinson. Lauren May belted a hit deep into right field and Cornell scored the winning run.

With the loss, Larsen’s record fell to 6-9.

‘We fought back, but we just think that we have a game and we’re ahead and we assume and teams like that come back and get you,’ Larsen said. ‘We just have to learn the hard way I guess.’

Syracuse did not trail in the first game until Heintz’s game-winning hit. The Orangewomen trailed the Big Red after Cornell scored two runs in the third inning. SU responded with three runs in the top of the sixth inning, but Cornell scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to tie.

Larsen credits SU’s losses to inconsistency and bad attitude. The Orangewomen lost games they could have easily put away.

‘We’re inconsistent right now,’ Larsen said. ‘We don’t know what we want. One day some people are here. The other days, other people are here. We’re just not consistent. At the plate, in the field, pitching, everything. We need the same people to come to the game each day instead of all of this rollercoaster, inconsistent stuff where we don’t know who’s coming to the game.’

The Orangewomen sparingly got a hit off of Cornell’s second-game pitcher Sarah Sterman, who faced 28 batters yet only allowed five hits.

‘Once we get the lead and we think ‘Oh, we’re winning,’ and we step back,’ Larsen said. ‘I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to learn it. It’s happened to us a lot and we still haven’t learned.’

Published on April 21, 2004 at 12:00 pm