MONMOUTH, Ill. – Cornell's softball team celebrated its long-awaited return to the game field Saturday with a 7-6 extra-inning win and a 13-0 five-inning rout over Monmouth in nonconference action on the road.

The Rams (2-0) were the home team on the scoreboard in both games, which were scheduled to be played in Mount Vernon.  

Cornell earned the Game 1 win in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the eighth inning. Singles by Alyssa Pearson (SO/McHenry, Ill.) and Erin Puck (SO/Davenport, Iowa), followed by a Monmouth error loaded the bases with nobody out for freshman pinch hitter Dalyn Wondra (FR/Fort Madison, Iowa).

Wondra came through in her first collegiate at-bat, singling home pinch runner Chardaye Beltran (FR/Simi Valley, Calif.) for the winning run.

Pearson pitched all eight innings for the Rams, striking out 14 batters and walking just one.

Cornell built a 5-1 lead in the fifth on the strength of a grand slam by Darice Wheeler (SR/Evanston, Ill.). The Scots (0-8) answered with five runs in the top of the sixth, but the Rams tied it at 6-6 in the bottom of the frame with an RBI hit by Mady Rainey (FR/Huntley, Ill.).

Puck went 3-for-4 to lead Cornell's 13-hit attack. Rainey and Julissa Rivera (FR/Houston, Texas) had two hits apiece.

It was all Cornell in Game 2, which saw the Rams erupt for eight runs in the second and five more in the third. Wheeler and Jessica Self (SO/Moravia, Iowa) combined on a two-hit shutout, with the starter Wheeler firing four innings and fanning six.  

Zoie Harvey (SO/Urbandale, Iowa) was 2-for-2 at the plate with a double, a run and three RBIs. Marissa Faletti (JR/Oak Forest, Ill.) also doubled and drove in a pair. Puck, Cailynn Wichman (SR/Crescent, Iowa), Wheeler, Faletti and Rivera all scored two runs apiece.

Coming up – The Rams travel to Galesburg, Ill., Tuesday for a 3 p.m. doubleheader against Knox.