MOUNT VERNON – An all-senior five-man pitching staff carried Cornell's baseball team to a 3-1 victory over Midwest Conference's second-place Ripon on Senior Day in Sunday's regular-season finale at Ash Park Field.
 
The Rams broke a 1-1 tie with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to secure a winning season under first-year head coach Robbie Dombrowski.
 
Cornell concluded the campaign at 21-19 overall and tied for fifth place in the MWC race at 11-13, one spot short of a postseason berth. The Rams achieved their fourth 20-win season in the past 10 years.
 
Sophomore Grant Morris came through with the decisive hit with two outs in the bottom of the eighth for the Rams. After fouling off a pair of 3-2 pitches, Morris sent a double down the left-field line that scored Kale Rose and Colin Konicek, pushing the Rams ahead 3-1.
 
Winning pitcher Chad Dzierba (1-0) retired the first batter he faced in the ninth, and then Carter Kriegel came on to record the final two outs for his third save of the season.
 
Left-hander Will Miller gave the Rams a quality start on the mound, allowing four hits and one run over 5.1 innings. Bobby Petersen, Preston Wright and Dzierba each fired one scoreless inning in relief.
 
Cornell's staff struck out seven Red Hawks and issued only two walks.
 
The Rams put their first run on the scoreboard with back-to-back doubles from seniors Carsen Dodge and Dylan Vargas in the third inning. Ripon (22-16 overall, 15-9 MWC) evened the game at 1-1 in the fifth.   
 
Cornell finished the campaign with a league-low 4.56 earned run average. The Rams broke the school record for pitching strikeouts in a season with 315.