“I was really trying to see the ball better in my late at-bats, shorting my swing and driving it the other way,” Farkes said. “I feel I’m taking a little bit from every game I play, trying to get better, especially late in the game.”

Closer and captain Barry Wahlberg came on in the ninth to record his second save of the season, ending the game on a nifty 4-6-3 double play sparked by a good pick-up and flip to short by Farkes.

Cornell 12, Harvard 0

Harvard’s pitching and defense struggled as much in the first game as they succeeded in the second.

The Crimson made five errors in the game as the infield muffed easy ground balls and extended innings for a Big Red team that came ready to play.

Cornell designated hitter Ned VanAllen hit for the cycle and stole a base, leading his team to a 6-0 lead after two innings.

Senior Matt Self, who pitched brilliantly in the second game at Columbia last Sunday, lasted just 1.1 innings yesterday after the Big Red pounded away on a fastball that stayed up in the strike zone, a fatal error for a ground-ball pitcher.

In the second inning, six consecutive Cornell hitters knocked base hits as the Big Red looked like the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. To add insult to injury, the Crimson made two errors in the inning as Walsh sat on the bench in disbelief.

“I’m shocked and disappointed with the way we played game one,” Walsh said. “Use any noun or verb you want—we were terrible.”

Self, too, was obviously displeased with the performance.

“It was a pretty big disappointment after last week,” Self said. “I didn’t really give the team a chance to win. I hoped to have similar control, but I was missing my spots and not keeping the fastball down.”

Senior Brendan Reed relieved Self in the second but failed to stop the Cornell onslaught.

In the top of the fourth, Reed retired the first two batters before allowing a triple to VanAllen. Schutt, who hit cleanup in the first game, then homered to left-center, giving the Big Red an 8-0 lead. Fifth hitter David Bredhoff made it back-to-back shots with a laser beam to left, putting an exclamation mark on an already gruesome Sunday home opener.

“It’s a weekend morning, blue skies, wonderful weather, first game in front of our home crowd and we come out and play like that,” Walsh said. “I was disappointed by all ends of the game.”

Cornell starter Dan Baysinger baffled the Crimson, allowing no runs on four hits in the seven-inning game.