GAME 33 - Cornell at Princeton
FIRST PITCH: Friday, April 24 - 12 p.m.
SITE: Clarke Field - Princeton, N.J.

GAME 34 - Cornell at Princeton
FIRST PITCH: Friday, April 24 - approx. 2:30 p.m.
SITE: Clarke Field - Princeton, N.J.
LIVE STATS: www.goprincetontigers.com

GAME 35- Princeton at Cornell
FIRST PITCH: Sunday, April 26 - 12 p.m.
SITE: Hoy Field - Ithaca, N.Y.

GAME 36 - Princeton at Cornell
FIRST PITCH: Sunday, April 26 - approx. 2:30 p.m.
SITE: Hoy Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.CornellBigRed.com

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell baseball team enters the final weekend of the regular season tied atop the Ivy League Gehrig Division with Princeton, the very team that the Big Red will square off against in a four-game series. The Tigers and Big Red will open the weekend with a doubleheader on Friday in Princeton, N.J., before the site switches to Cornell's Hoy Field on Sunday for the deciding two games of the series. Fans can watch both of Sunday's games through the Cornell Redcast subscription service, while live stats will be available for all four games.

LAST TIME OUT
Cornell extended its winning streak to three games with a victory over Siena in the first game of a doubleheader on Tuesday by a 15-3 score, but the Big Red saw its streak end with a 7-4 loss in the nightcap. The Cornell offense banged out 26 hits on the day, led by a 5-for-8 performance from Brian Billigen. Four others had three hits, while Billigen, Scott Hardinger and Jadd Schmeltzer each scored three runs on the day. Mickey Brodsky drove in five runs, with Nate David knocking in four. Matt Hill got the win in game one, while Dan Lea took the loss in game two.

ABOUT CORNELL
The Big Red enters this weekend's play with a 13-19 mark overall and an 8-8 record in Ivy League play. Freshman Brian Billigen leads the offense with a .410 batting average, while seniors Nathan Ford and Scott Hardinger and sophomore Mickey Brodsky lead all regulars in batting better than .300 on the year. Ford leads the team with eight home runs, while Hardinger has team-high honors with 27 runs scored and Brodsky leads the team with 32 runs batted in. Junior Nate David has been the top stolen base threat, swiping seven bases in 10 attempts, while fellow junior Matt Langseth and Billigen have swiped four bases each. On the mound, sophomore Jadd Schmeltzer leads the staff with a 3.77 earned-run average, while junior Matt Hill has a team-best 29 strikeouts in 43.2 innings of work. Five players are tied with two wins apiece, with junior David Rochefort collecting six of the team's seven saves on the year.

ABOUT THE TIGERS
Princeton enters the weekend at 16-16 overall and 8-8 in Ivy League play, bolstered by a 5.07 team earned run average, which leads the Ivy League. David Palms has a sterling 2.74 earned-run average in 42.2 innings of work to go along with his 4-2 record, while Brad Gemberling has a 5-1 record with a 5.36 earned-run average in 47.0 innings. Offensively, Dan DeGeorge, Greg Van Horn and Jon Broscious are the only players hitting over .300, led by DeGeorge's .368 average. Four players share team-high honors with four home runs, while DeGeorge has a team-best 25 runs scored.

PLAYOFF PICTURE
Both Cornell and Princeton enter this weekend's action needing to win three games to clinch the Ivy League Gehrig Division title. A split of the four-game series would result in a tie, with the two teams meeting next week in a single-game tiebreaker. A wrench could be thrown into the mix if Columbia, which currently trails both Cornell and Princeton by two games, sweeps its four-game series against Penn this weekend. A Columbia sweep, coupled with a Cornell/Princeton split, would result in a three-way tie, with a pair of tiebreaker games scheduled for next week.

SAVING THE DAY
David Rochefort picked up the save in each of Cornell's three wins last weekend at Columbia, giving him six for the season. The six saves for Rochefort tie him for the most in a single season, equalling the mark set by David Sharfstein in 2002. The six saves also move Rochefort into third all-time at Cornell in that category, just three off the record set by John Douglas from 1995 to 1998.

FORD'S ASSAULT CONTINUES
Senior Nathan Ford continues to rewrite the Cornell baseball record books, as he is climbing the top five lists in a number of categories. Ford has eight home runs this season, tying him for fourth all-time in a single season, and he has 172 career hits, fifth all-time, and just 13 off the school record of 185, set by Marlin McPhail from 1979-82. He also is challenging the all-time batting average mark of .362, held by Erik Rico from 1999-2002, as he enters this weekend's action with a career .364 batting average. A full list of records being threatened by Ford follow:
Career
Batting Average: 1st, .364
Slugging Percentage: 5th, .539
Hits: 5th, 172
Doubles: T-4th, 36

Single Season
Home Runs: T-4th, 8

SOMETHING TO PLAY FOR
Cornell will be trying this weekend to clinch just its second Ivy League Gehrig Division title since Ivy League play began in 1993. The Big Red won its only division crown in 2005, finishing 11-9 in league play - the same record that the Big Red would have this season should it go 3-1 against Princeton this weekend.

LOVING THE LONG BALL
As a team this season, the Big Red has hit 27 home runs, currently fifth all-time in a single season for the Big Red. The all-time record for team home runs in a campaign is 35, set in 1999. Nathan Ford leads the team with eight round-trippers, while Jadd Schmeltzer has five and Nate David has four.

BE SMART
Cornell has also had success running the bases this season, as baserunners have only been caught stealing nine times in 37 attempts. The nine times being caught so far are the fewest in school history, and, if it stands, would break the old mark of 11 in 1992.

NO FREE PASSES
Cornell pitchers have given up just 98 walks through the 32 games this season, a paltry number compared to the 178 strikeouts recorded by Big Red pitching. David Rochefort leads the way in strikeout-to-walk ratio, having fanned 26 batters while issuing only three walks this season.

UP NEXT
If Cornell wins three or four games this weekend, the Big Red would play LeMoyne in a single game on Wednesday in Syracuse, before heading to either Dartmouth or Brown for the Ivy League Championship Series next weekend. If the Big Red goes 2-2 on the weekend, Cornell and Princeton - and possibly Columbia - would be involved in a playoff to determine the Gehrig Division's representative in the Ivy League Championship Series.