ITHACA, N.Y. – Sophomore pitcher Kellen Urbon has been named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Preseason All-America Third Team on Wednesday.
 
Urbon is coming off a freshman season in which he set program records with nine saves and a 0.47 earned run average. He was unanimously selected as both the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and the lone relief pitcher on the All-Ivy League First Team, then was later selected as a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American and placed on the NCBWA's Division I Freshman All-America First Team.
 
Urbon was immediately installed as the team's closer in 2012, posting a 3-1 record through 21 appearances. That included three extended outings of five innings or more five scoreless innings of work April 7 at Brown, which resulted in his first collegiate victory. He then surrendered just an unearned run in 6.1 innings of relief April 29 at Princeton in a must-win game that Cornell won in the 12th inning. The performance at Princeton earned Urbon Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors.

The following week, Urbon pitched five scoreless innings in Game 3 of the Ivy League Championship Series against Dartmouth, earning the victory after Chris Cruz's walk-off home run in the 11th inning sent Cornell to the win. To close out the season, he worked 2.2 innings against East Carolina in an NCAA Regional game, surrendering just an unearned run. Opposing hitters batted just .170 against him for the season, and just two of the six runs scored against him on the season were earned.
 
Coming off its first Ivy League title, Cornell will open its 2013 season with a four-game tournament March 1-3 at Maryland-Eastern Shore.