MOUNT VERNON – Cornell's baseball team was held to a season-low two hits in Friday's 5-2 Midwest Conference loss to Knox at Ash Park Field.
 
The teams resume the three-game series Saturday with a noon doubleheader in Galesburg, Ill.  
 
Friday was a pitchers' game with a chilly wind blowing in from center field. The lineups combined for 21 strikeouts and mustered only eight hits.
 
Knox (3-18 overall, 1-3 MWC) plated three runs in the top of the third inning against Cornell ace Logan Gannon. The Prairie Fire scored on a soft single, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly, proving to be all the offense they needed.
 
The Rams (10-10 overall, 2-2 MWC) fell behind 5-0 before climbing back in it with two runs in the fourth. Luke Hull's bunt single led to a throwing error that scored Jimmy Moltini. Jackson Simmons made it 5-2 with a sacrifice fly to left.
 
Cornell managed just one base runner over the final five innings, a Garrett Roehl leadoff walk in the sixth. Roehl also had a two-out double in the first.  
 
Gannon (2-3) increased his MWC-leading strikeout total to 48 with five punchouts. He allowed three hits and three earned runs over three innings. Roehl was superb in six innings of relief, yielding three hits and one run with five strikeouts.
 
The Prairie Fire retired the final 12 Cornell batters in order and snapped an eight-game series losing streak.