WEST LIBERTY – Trailing by five runs and down to its final out, Cornell's baseball team charged all the way back on a game-tying homer by Sean Alvarez and outlasted Central in 12 innings, 9-8, in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader at West Liberty High School.
 
The Rams got down big again in Game 2, although Central held on late for an 11-8 win to salvage a split.
 
Cornell finished 3-1 during its season-opening neutral-site weekend, which started with Friday's decisive sweep over St. Norbert.
 
The Rams mounted an improbable comeback down 8-3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 1. Ryan Weaver doubled home two runs and Cade Parks singled in another before a big swing by Alvarez tied it at 8-8 with a two-run homer to right.
 
Cornell secured the win in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the 12th on Seth Beals' one-out single to right that scored Alvarez.
 
Winning pitcher Grant Morris (1-0) fired three innings of no-hit ball in relief, striking out three.
 
Freshman Collin Severson homered, doubled and scored twice for the Rams, who trailed 8-1 in the seventh. Weaver doubled and drove in three runs. Parks had two hits, including a triple.
 
The Rams tried to erase a 10-2 deficit in Game 2, striking five times in the eighth and once more in the ninth before the comeback fell short.
 
Parks capped a five-hit day, going 3-for-5 with a two-run homer. Weaver also tallied three hits, including a double, and scored twice. Esteban Perez went 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs.
 
Central (3-1) took advantage of four Cornell errors that led to five unearned runs. Cornell's Cameron Anderson gave up one earned run over 3.2 innings in relief, fanning five.
 
Coming up – The Rams travel to play No. 28 nationally-ranked Cal Lutheran for a three-game series Friday and Saturday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Friday's single game starts at 4 p.m. (Central time).