For the first time this season, the Harvard baseball team played the way its players knew it could, picking up consecutive two-game sweeps to open its Ivy League season.

Behind strong pitching, solid defense and a newly-ignited offensive attack, the Crimson (7-11, 4-0) decisively snapped a three-game losing streak with vastly improved play in victories over Princeton and Cornell.

“Our defense has stepped up immeasurably from last year, making diving plays,” said sophomore Marc Hordon, whose club made only one error in four weekend games. “We always knew we’d have pretty dominant pitching. Now that the hitting is coming around, we feel pretty good.”

The Crimson will next travel to Holy Cross on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Harvard 6, Cornell 2

A stellar pitching performance from Hordon put the final exclamation point on a breakout weekend for the Crimson.

In his first trip to the mound in more than two weeks, Hordon (1-1) allowed no earned runs on five hits while striking out nine in eight innings.

It was the third time in four Ivy games that Harvard’s starter has gone at least seven innings.

“It felt absolutely awesome to get back on the mound, especially after not pitching for so long,” said Hordon, who continued to pitch after being hit by a pitch in the top of the seventh inning.

“It hurt and I lost some velocity on my fastball,” Hordon said. “But I was able to eek it out for the last two innings.”

Senior third baseman Nick Carter led the way at the plate with a double and three RBI, while senior right fielder Javy Lopez added a double and a single.

Freshman A.J. Solimine relieved Hordon in the ninth, allowing two hits and one earned run in one inning of relief to drop the Big Red to 6-13

(0-2) on the season.

Harvard 12, Cornell 7

The Crimson offense pounded out 17 hits and junior Barry Wahlberg threw five scoreless innings of relief to give the Crimson the win in the 11-inning marathon.